New Homebrewer

Found this forum this morning and registered after reading for a while. This is obviously the place for info. Brewed my first batch on Sat. and have been worried (overly it seems) about the slow start of fermentation. after approx. 38 hrs (Mon. morning) I'm finally getting some action in my airlock. Not a lot of action, it probably bubbles every 20-30 sec. Hopefully all is well, just a slow beginning. For background, being a beginner I used a "True Brew" Pale Ale home kit and followed the directions as closely as possible. Dry yeast was pitched directly into the fermenter at about 78 degrees. Over the first day I slowly got the temp. down to around 65-68 degrees (by the cheep stick on thermometer). Hopefully I just need to relax and let it go. I'll be in touch if things don't pick up with fermenting. Great site. Seems that the main theme is to just relax.

Welcome to the wonderful obsession of homebrewing, sounds like your doing great so far. Fermentation can take a while to start, so don't worry about that, in the end you'll have beer

Welcome to HBT!
Just relax. It sounds like your beer is starting to ferment. While 38 hours is quite awhile, I wouldn't be too concerned.
What yeast did you use?

Thanks for the vote of confidence. For the sake of argument, if my fermentation doesn't pick up, that is, I just get a few bubbles in a "spurt" every 20-30 seconds, should I be concerned, or just let it go until it stops then check FG? Just wondering.

RichBrewer said:

Welcome to HBT!
Just relax. It sounds like your beer is starting to ferment. While 38 hours is quite awhile, I wouldn't be too concerned.
What yeast did you use?

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I must admit, I didn't pay enough attention to the type of yeast. All I know is that it was Ale yeast (dry). As I said, I followed the directions of the kit as closely as I could, so I didn't hydrate the yeast in water before pitching it. I poured my wort into 3 gal of cold water in the fermenter, then topped it up to 5 gal with more cold water. This seemed to bring the temp. down to around 78 deg. As directed, I sprinkled the yeast on top, let it sit for 10 min. then gently stirred it in.