Brew not fermenting

Hi guys, just recently returned to Home Brewing after a break of several years. Two days ago I mixed a brew of Muntons Nut Brown Ale, Morgans Caramalt, 250g lactose and yeast (simmered above in 4 litres of water before adding remaining water – 20 litres in total). The airlock has yet to start bubbling, although there is a small amount of froth on the surface. I just taped the lid to ensure the barrel is sealed.


I’m worried that I may have overlooked something. Any thoughts?

if you simmered the yeast, i'm willing to bet that its dead. get some more and pitch it. if you added yeast to approx 70 degree wort, give it another day, sometimes it takes time. a little bit of froth usually means that fermenting has started and your airlock will begin to bubble soon.

was the extract already hopped?

I think the Drunken Monk is right. There was a thread recently that stated that, at 120 degrees you'll harm your yeast and 130+ you'll kill it. Do you think you're simmered water got that high? If so, repitch.

Dave...without knowing more about your process, it is impossible to know what, if anything, is wrong. Did you cool your wort prior to pitching? Did you aerate the wort? The frothy surface may be the krausen layer, which means your beer is fermenting and everything is fine. You may not have a tight seal on your fermenter, which allows CO2 to escape and not build up enough to move your airlock. Fill in the variables and you will get better answers to your concerns.

Cheers,
Shoopdog

Edit - I see in your post that you mixed all of your ingredients including the yeast prior to simmering? If so, your yeast is toast and you will need to repitch.

Sounds like a krausen is forming. [I'm assuming having the yeast in the simmer is a typo]

It sounds like you killed off most of the yeast during the simmer, seems like some survived since you have some foam starting to form. If you do not pitch another packet of yeast you will have a very slow ferment and the chances of an infection will go up.

I'm with David. the OP isn't a total noobie, so I'm betting he knows better than to cook his yeast.

I suspect that a lack of adequate aeration at pitching, and maybe an old packet of yeast has simply created lag time.
I don't 'worry' about my primary until after 3 full days and no airlock activity. then I'll look in the bucket...there might be thick krausen, indicating my lid isn't sealed.

I'd give it until Monday before pitching any more yeast...unless you really did simmer the yeast.

Sorry guys, I didn’t make it clear. I simmered the mix (Caramal Malt, Nut Brown Ale and Lactose), mixed it with the remaining water and allowed to cool to around 21deg over night. I added the yeast the next morning. The specific gravity started at 30 and over the last 3 days (Friday morning to Monday night) has gone down / up to 20. When I poured it into a glass it had a head that looked good enough to drink. The froth has now almost disappeared, and I have a ‘crusty’ ring around the container.

Surely it couldn’t have fermented that quickly.

On another note, I just read the article ‘When to go from Primary to Secondary’. I have always waited until the mix stopped bubbling around 7 to 10 days and then bottled. All my beers to date (aside from this current one) have been great. I’ve made most commercially purchased kits, as well as a few special ones such as Chilli beers etc, mostly with malts, and depending on the beer added liquid hops, boiled grains etc. However, have I been overlooking an important step. If so, does this mean I should transfer the current brew to another similar container, complete with air-lock, prior to bottling?