Lack of fermentation, a little baffled here.

I've brewed around 10 batches now, and I've never had a problem like this.

Honestly I just kind of just threw together a bunch of different ingredients and leftovers I had since I'm kind of low on funds at the moment.

The recipe basically went as follows:

2 lb Wheat Dry Malt Extract
2 lb Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Dark Malt Dry Extract
2 lb Caravienne
1 lb Carapils
1 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb Belgian Candi Sugar

60 min 1 oz. Centennial
40 min 1 oz. Cascade
20 min 1 oz. Cascade
10 min 1 oz. Willamette
5 min 1 oz. Amarillo

I went ahead and used Wyeast Activator 1056 (american ale) yeast.

So like I said this was kind of just what I had laying around, (it was the 4th, and we kind of got a melting pot kind of idea).

It had maybe an inch of kraeusen on the top after a day, but the air lock wasn't bubbling at all. I didn't take any gravity readings because I had hurt my knee pretty badly earlier while brewing (long story) and just wanted to be done as soon as possible.

I gave it a couple days, and still no change.
So today I picked up some Safale US05 because they didn't have any Wyeast left at the local hbs. (the activator puffed up great like it was supposed to, but i was worried that maybe it had died)

I pitched the Safale a few hours ago now, and I've still got no observable activity.

The temperature is sitting solidly around 71*F.

Any ideas what I may have done wrong?
Should I wait longer?
Try another yeast?

I've never really had any serious problems with fermentation so I really don't know what else to do. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

If I understand you correctly, you say you had a krausen, but no airlock activity, and that it stayed that way for a few days. Sounds like it fermented! I just went through a fermentation that had no airlock activity-- must have had a leak around the carboy cap.

Of course, the only way to be sure is a specific gravity reading. Sorry about your knee, but this is the only way to be sure. If the fermentation is done, then adding the dry yeast wouldn't have done anything, if much, which is what it sounds like happened.

-Steve

SavageSteve said:

If I understand you correctly, you say you had a krausen, but no airlock activity, and that it stayed that way for a few days. Sounds like it fermented! I just went through a fermentation that had no airlock activity-- must have had a leak around the carboy cap.

Of course, the only way to be sure is a specific gravity reading. Sorry about your knee, but this is the only way to be sure. If the fermentation is done, then adding the dry yeast wouldn't have done anything, if much, which is what it sounds like happened.

-Steve

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Thanks for the input steve.
Whats makes me worry, is that there was very little krausen compared to other brews I've done, and this was a pretty big beer.

I knew I should've taken a gravity reading, but I just wanted to be done at that point.

Perhaps if I try a different lid and airlock?
I've never had any beers that had 0 airlock activity, it just makes me very suspicious.

Well you had krausen, regardless of the size that means you had fermentation...Airlock bubbling or lack of bubbling is NOT an indication of fermentation....the airlock is a valve for excess co2, nothing else really, definitely not an accurate fermentation gauge like your hydometer is...

Over half my beers never have bubbling in the airlok.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because we don't see anything happenning, doesn't mean that anything's wrong, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working dilligantly away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years....the yeasts are busy for a long time doing what they need to do.

And as to the idea of repitching...

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in.....

Repitching, or doing anything else befor taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the same thing...

Your mistake was trusting your airlock, and NOT taking a hydro reading, or trusting the krausen that you saw...I bet there was nothing wrong at all...and the hydro would have proved it.

Should I take a measurement with the hydro now?

And then probably again tomorrow?

K-Bizzle said:

Should I take a measurement with the hydro now?

And then probably again tomorrow?

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Sure, that would be good. It might be a little high, because of the 3 pounds of crystal malt, leaving lots of residual sugars, but if it doesn't change over the next few days, then it's probably done.

BTW Thanks for the input Revvy, your advice is always appreciated and helpful.

YooperBrew said:

Sure, that would be good. It might be a little high, because of the 3 pounds of crystal malt, leaving lots of residual sugars, but if it doesn't change over the next few days, then it's probably done.

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According to beer calculus og should have been close to 1.72 so I'll check it right now.

K-Bizzle said:

Whats makes me worry, is that there was very little krausen compared to other brews I've done, and this was a pretty big beer.

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That's the mistake then. One thing to realize is that since we are dealing with living micro-orgasms, that no two fermentations are ever the same.

Never assume that because something is happening differently, that there is something wrong.

Something to remember is that with yeasties, you are dealing with living creatures...every fermentation is different...you can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....

I've found that you should never assume anything where the yeasties are concerned except that they are in charge...not us...and they've been doing this beer making stuff for 5, 000 years...so basicially we just need to trust them, and not bug them...and give them plenty of time, and they will make us very very happy.

Relax..It's really hard for your beer not to turn out.......it surprises us and manages to survive despite what we do to it...

I also don't understand what you mean by "I just want to be done." How do you define being done without taking a reading....or without patience....

In Mr Wizard's colum in BYO this month he made an interesting analogy about brewing and baking....He said that egg timers are all well and good in the baking process but they only provide a "rule of thumb" as to when something is ready...recipes, oven types, heck even atmospheric conditions, STILL have more bearing on when a cake is ready than the time it says it will be done in the cook book. You STILL have to stick a toothpick in the center and pull it out to see if truly the cake is ready.....otherwise you may end up with a raw cake....

Not too different from our beers....We can have a rough idea when our beer is ready (or use something silly like the 1-2-3 rule (which doesn't factor in things like yeast lag time or even ambient temp during fermentation) and do things to our beer willy nilly....but unless we actually stick "our toothpick" (the hydrometer) in and let it tell us when the yeasties are finished...we too can "f" our beer up.

You can't make a beer ready,,,the yeast is in charge, NOT us.

Anyway...I'm sure your beer will be fine...I'm sure your beer WAS fine...But in the future think about actually diagnosing if there is a problem before fixing it.

Often a little diagnosis saves us stress....

I'm not going to post pics, but I busted open my knee VERY BADLY during brewing.
My house has multiple stories and I had ran downstairs to my brew sink during the boil to get an ice bath going.

Anyway while running back up, and tripped and busted open my knee quite badly. My gf (former emt) said I should have gotten stitches. I didn't take a reading because I honestly couldn't really stand any longer than I NEEDED to. Anyway that aside, lesson learned. I will always take a hydro reading from now on, in hindsight I had a friend giving me a hand with this brew and I could have explained it and had him take a reading.

Hydro right now says 158, so I can only guess fermentation definitely has taken place. I'll give it 2 in the primary just to be safe.

Knees are complicated, might be a good idea to get it looked at. If you have trouble standing on it, there could be some internal damage. I opened my left knee as a kid and to this day it isn't quite right. Not bad enough for surgery, but not totally trust-worthy under stress.

david_42 said:

Knees are complicated, might be a good idea to get it looked at. If you have trouble standing on it, there could be some internal damage. I opened my left knee as a kid and to this day it isn't quite right. Not bad enough for surgery, but not totally trust-worthy under stress.

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Well like I said the GF used to be an EMT and she took a look at it.
I bruised it BAD, as well as busted it open rather badly, she dressed it and took care of me.
She's a good lady.