Belgian Dubbel - Belgian High Gravity yeast not starting

Its been a day and a half and there is no sign of off gassing yet in the fermentor. I am wondering if anyone has used the Wyest Belgian Strong Ale (1388) strain and if it takes longer to start.

The temp is about 69 degrees, OG is 1.06 (which is at the top of the limit for the strain).

Any thoughts or helpful tips are much appreciated. The only solution I can think of now is to add water, but that is negating the idea of doing a high gravity beer.

Did you do a starter?

You should be fine but you underpitched some if you didn't. Give it some more time. Sometimes fermentation can take a while to start.

BTW airlock activity is not a fermentation indicator. The only way to tell is with a gravity reading. If you are using a bucket the lids sometimes don't seal properly and you will see no airlock activity.

I agree with beer golf. It's likely that you under pitched....and 1.060 is nowhere near a maximum OG for a Belgian strain. In fact, it doesn't really work that way. Most yeast pretty capable of handling high alcohol levels in your beer and 1.060 isn't a particularly high OG.

I am going to do a starter and pitch again. Will it help to add a yeast starter at this point or is it too late?

I would wait until tomorrow morning at least if you didn't make a starter initially. The yeast will increase their numbers to amounts sufficient to ferment the beer then start the serious fermentation.

It would not surprise me to have a lag time of 36 to 48 hours if you underpitched.

72 hours is often cited as the time to get concerned and consider other measures to start fermentation.

I suggest that when using liquid yeasts, always make a starter.

The "potentially" nice thing about Belgian strains is that you are looking for "character" from it. Your yeast just went through a bigger than normal growth phase which is the time that most of your esters and phenols are created. I think your beer will eventually take off. It just might have some extra Belgian character. Hopefully, your wort was clean and the long lag time didn't allow some nasties to take hold. Good luck, in my experience, mistakes still make good beer!

mhenry41h said:

The "potentially" nice thing about Belgian strains is that you are looking for "character" from it. Your yeast just went through a bigger than normal growth phase which is the time that most of your esters and phenols are created. I think your beer will eventually take off. It just might have some extra Belgian character. Hopefully, your wort was clean and the long lag time didn't allow some nasties to take hold. Good luck, in my experience, mistakes still make good beer!

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Agree with this post. You'll likely end up with some more ester character, and this is a beer that you expect lots of esters. So long as you didn't have something else in there, you should be fine.

Realistically, speaking, it's too late to do a starter anyways.

Why would it be too late to pitch yeast again?

I too have a Belgian Dubble that is not starting, but it has just been overnight and temps were kind of cool.

In two days, if there is no fermentation, is it feasible to pitch yeast again?

If I start a starter now, it would go in at approximately 72 hours after the first yeast went in.

What are the considerations? Too much yeast? Too much chance of bacteria getting started? Does wort go bad after a few days if no fermentation?

Thanks for any advice!

It's not too late to pitch a starter.

The biggest issue is that you might have some bacteria in there that may have affected the wort. Wit decent sanitation, it should be fine for several days.

I think the bigger problem than bacteria is the loss of oxygen. If u can re-oxygenate then u could try that before pitching. Did u use an aerator on the wort?