Non Starting Primary Ferment

So I brewed on Saturday, and this was the first time I used a liquid yeast. I brewed an amber ale and nut brown ale. Anyway, as of 8:00 this morning, neither of the primaries have started to ferment. After brewing, I moved the primaries to my basement where the temperature was about 57 degrees.

After looking at the White Labs London ale and British ale recommendations, they want to ferment at around 70 degrees. Since it has been more that 36 hours, should I pitch some new yeast into the primaries?


Any thoughts?

First, I would move the fermenters somewhere warmer, closer to 70F. Ale yeasts are not going to get off to a good start with an ambient temp of 57. Has any kraeusen formed?

Last night I moved the glass carboys to a warmer room, but that was only about 62 degress last night. (in the northeast it is still quite cold, and we dont heat the house over 65 anyway) This morning I moved the primaries to the warmest room in our house. The temperature there was about 72 degrees. No kraeusen as of this morning when I left for work.

I was wondering if i should wait for another day, or should i just pitch more yeast today.

If you have more yeast on hand I'd be inclined to pitch if you've seen no activity whatsoever. You don't want wort sitting around without yeast activity for 2-3 days if you can help it (not that it's the end of the world, especially if you were careful about sanitiation). Once you get it going you will probably be okay in the 62F room since the temperature of your fermentation will be several degrees higher.

Is she bubbling yet??

If these are 5 gallons or more it is going take a little more time for the wort to warm from 57 to above say 65 F and then the yeast will lag a bit too. If you moved it to the warmer temperatures last night and it has only been 12 hours or so and you see no activity, I would give it 24 -36 hrs before adding new yeast. Ale yeast at 57 F are not very active. This temperature is fine for lager yeast, but your ale yeast will need some time to activate their metabolism once it warms past 65 F.

Just my 2 cents.

Dr Malt

You might also consider giving those carboys a good shake to resuspend the yeast. It might have been cool enough that much of it settled to the bottom. Given that it is a relatively small amount of yeast that get's pitched, you want to ensure as much of it as possible is suspended and active.

Thanks Guys for the info.

I did move the carboys to a warmer section of the house, wrapped them in blankets, and put a small electric heater near them to heat to 72-73 degrees. Ironically the nut brown ale started to ferment quite vigorously after about 6-8 hours. The amber ale took about 12 hours to start. I was getting a little worried there, thinking that it might never start.

They are bubbling along nicely now with a lot of krausen. Actually, the nut brown ale is bubbling faster than any one I have ever seen in the past.

Now I cant wait to try them, but that is going to be a while...

I learned a good lesson on this one, that you can just automatically think that the yeast will start at less than the recommended temperatures.

kdsarch said:

I learned a good lesson on this one, that you can just automatically think that the yeast will start at less than the recommended temperatures.

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Temperature means everything. Too high a temperature will produce some fruity off-flavors, and too low a temperature will get you exactly what you saw. I do my best to keep my temperatures in the 65 - 68 degree range.

That happened to me on my last batch, which was only my 3rd batch. It took over 30 hrs for any activity and I was getting worried. I did not make a starter as I thought that was only for dry yeast. It takes awhile longer for the liquid yeast to propagate enough to get a good ferment going.

Also one thing I have to do in my house at this time of year is wrap blankets around my fermenters to keep the temp up