FINALLY got my second batch going...

My girlfriend and I brewed Friday night and by Monday after work I still didn't have any fermentation...and gravity was still at the OG measurement. My first batch refused to take off too until I repitched. I don't know what in the world I'm doing wrong because I'm doing the exact same procedure when I repitch and it takes off the same night. Maybe I should just start buying two packages of yeast all the time

One of the great things though was I put the primary in my bedroom closet and last night around 4am the bubbling of the airlock wakes both my girlfriend and I up and she goes, "our beer is fermenting." I smiled in satisfaction that she knew what the sound was The dog was growling at it in the middle of the night too....lol. He did not like that noise waking him up.

What temp is it where you are fermenting? A low temp can mean it takes a long time for fermentation to start.

Also, what temp is the wort when you initially pitch the yeast? Too high of a temperature can kill the yeasties (over 95 or so), and too low can mean a longer lag phase.

No problem to do a second pitch, it just seems too bad that you have to. Maybe next time wait as long as a week before repitching, making sure you pitch at a fine temperature (anything between 60 and 85 works, though you really want to keep it 60-70) and that the ambient temperature is in the high 60's low 70's.

I had the primary in the basement for a few hours the first day when I decided it was too cold down there (57F)...so I moved it upstairs to my bedroom closet. The temp upstairs varies between 61-68 during the day. The weather has been rather nice the past few days so I'm sure the average temp is probably 65 in the house. I made sure to cool the wort down to about 80 before we threw it in the primary and then topped off with water (which I'm sure cooled it even more).

I forgot to mention I know why I killed off the first batch...it was because I used too hot of water to rehydrate the yeast. So this time I made sure I got the water down to 100F but I still had problems with it starting. Maybe that was too hot still? This time I brought the temp down even further to about 90F and that seemed to work.

It's all a learning experience I guess. It's amazing how a few degrees can affects your brew.

bennychico11 said:

One of the great things though was I put the primary in my bedroom closet and last night around 4am the bubbling of the airlock wakes both my girlfriend and I up and she goes, "our beer is fermenting."

Click to expand...

Homebrewing, it's like having kids... minus the 18 years of bull****.

CiscoKid said:

Homebrewing, it's like having kids... minus the 18 years of bull****.

Click to expand...

too bad the solution to a crying kid at 4am isn't just moving it out into the front hallway like I could do with the primary

Don't worry about rehydrating your yeast if your OG is 1.060 or less. It's a bit of an arbitrary number, but probably a safe one. I always pitch yeast dry and it starts just fine. One extra step I don't have to worry about

Good luck on your next brews. Every one is a learning experience.