No Bubbles

Just started out homebrewing, and I'm on my second batch (Imperial Nut Brown). Brewed last night, everything went smoothly, but haven't noticed any bubbles in the airlock fermenter yet. The yeast I used came in one of those Brewer's Best kits and says it's a dry ale yeast.

What could be the problem? How long should I wait before adding more yeast? If additional yeast is needed, what kind would be best (should I get a stronger one) and will that have an overall effect on the finished beer?

Thanks

Give it another day or two.

Old yeast can take a while to start up, especially if you don't rehydrate it.

Something else you might want to try (if you're using a bucket fermenter) is setting a book on the top of the pail. When you do that, you'll see the water level in the airlock shift some. Come back half an hour later to see if the water level stayed where it was or shifted back to neutral. If the water shifts it just means you have a small leak in your seal somewhere. The beer will be fine, but you won't see any bubbles.

A final thing to consider right now is your temperature. If ambient is below 65 or so then an ale yeast is going to be rather sluggish (if it will even start up at all.)

I used to live on Claremon street. . .

I would give it a little bit more time. There is a wealth of information on this, Check this out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/

Thanks guys! Came home last night and at almost exactly 24 hours after I pitched the yeast, the airlock was bubbling and screaming.

But something to realize, It doesn't matter if your airlock bubbles or not.
That's never an accurate indication of fermentation. It is a vent to release excess co2..not a fermentation gauge.

Your beer will ferment whether or not the airlock bubbles. If it's not bubbling it usually just means that doesn't need to release any EXCESS co2. Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that anything's wrong, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working dilligantly away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years..

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about adding more yeast, like you asked about, without first taking a grav reading is tantamount to the doctor doing the same thing to you....proposing a "cure" without really knowing what the problem is.

Next time, before you worry about it, wait 72 hours, because https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/ (But in thise thread it is said repeatedly Airlock is NOT the visible sign we are talking about.) THEN take a hydrometer reading, and you will know what your beer is doing.

And more than likely you will then see a decrease in gravity which means fermentation was happening.