Yeast Problems

Last Sunday I brewed an Irish Stout with some added Dark DME to kick up the alcohol content. Before I brewed, I made a yeast starter two days in advance with White Labs liquid yeast. This was suggested due to the added alcohol content. The starter was pretty active but calmed down around the time I was going to add it to the cooled wort but no worries. Everything went great during the brew, cooled to 75 and pitched the yeast.

I've been waiting all week and I haven't seen much activity from the airlock when I've checked. What is the best way to tell if my yeast died/is inactive? How do I revive it without ruining the batch? Should I add a pack of dry yeast to get it going or is my batch sunk? Please help.

Berserker

When you say "much," what were you expecting, and what did you get?

What are you fermenting in? If a bucket, they sometimes leak, so you may not see much bubbling. Also, even with the extra extract, the yeast may have gone about their business quickly.

The way to know what really happened in there is to get out the trusty hydrometer and take a gravity reading.


TL

By "much", I mean I haven't seen a single bubble, and yes it is in a plastic bucket but I've used it for 2 other batches and both we're bubbling every few secs in the beginning.

I was planning on a hydro reading today, but I figure I should be prepared. Should I let this stout sit in the primary longer than usual before putting it in the secondary(i was planning to leave it in here for 5-6 weeks)? Also if the hydro reading isn't good, what should I do?

The hydrometer is your best friend when you are curious about your fementation.

Berserker said:

By "much", I mean I haven't seen a single bubble, and yes it is in a plastic bucket but I've used it for 2 other batches and both we're bubbling every few secs in the beginning.

I was planning on a hydro reading today, but I figure I should be prepared. Should I let this stout sit in the primary longer than usual before putting it in the secondary(i was planning to leave it in here for 5-6 weeks)? Also if the hydro reading isn't good, what should I do?

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Re-pitch, worse case scenario is you have a little extra trub.

What kind of yeast were you using and what was your gravity? Your yeast should certainly be alive. High gravity won't kill them, they just may ferment until there's so much alcohol that they basically kill themselves, although they could have gotten shocked for some reason. Re pitching isn't going to hurt anything. You may also think of moving your fermenter to a warmer location until you get some action and see if you can jump start the buggers.

Questions;

what was OG?
what yeast? what size starter?
did you pitch whole starter or decant off?
did you aerate your wort?
has there been temp. swings?
when you lift the lid of bucked can you see krausen?

hydrometer readings are what you need.

Eastside

OG = 1.058
Yeast = White Labs
Starter = 16 oz
Pitched whole starter
Aerated wort
No temp swings
I can see the krausen. It seems to be doing better just took awhile. Its been about 8 days and is at 1.026.