safale 56 / 05

alright.

i was making an ipa and all looked great so far.
i used safale us 56 / aka 05.
i rehydrated the yeast, let it sit about 20 mins maybe less and then proofed it with some sugar. after another 15 mins or so i stirred and added tothe carboy.

its been just about 2 days. i have a huge buildup at the BOTTOM of the carboy.
i have several options. wait, take a gravity reading, add nutrient/energizer ..
i can do some of these or a combination if these.

im not really sure if this yeast is bottom fermenting. i wouldnt expect that. im almost worried that the yeast is dead or jsut not active for some odd reason.

thoughts? any input welcome....

you didnt say if you had active signs of fermentaion(bubbles, kraeusen,etc) if you have then an ale yeast can, at higher temps or in excessive amounts, ferment quickly. if you havent seen any fermentation after two days then your yeast is probably dead. this could be a result of any no. of problems. the best course of action is to research your methods and if you dont think its a major problem with the wort, try pictching more yeast under the correct conditions. a fg may help also.

Check the gravity, it's the only sure thing. It is extremely unlikely that the yeast died.

You didn't say what temperture your wort was at. By the sound of the amount of yeast you have on the bottom of your fermenter, hook up a blow off tube. Once that sucker starts it will be massive.
Is your wort cloudy looking or clear?

snoochhandytardman said:

you didnt say if you had active signs of fermentaion(bubbles, kraeusen,etc) if you have then an ale yeast can, at higher temps or in excessive amounts, ferment quickly. if you havent seen any fermentation after two days then your yeast is probably dead. this could be a result of any no. of problems. the best course of action is to research your methods and if you dont think its a major problem with the wort, try pictching more yeast under the correct conditions. a fg may help also.

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it was 2 days as of about 5 pm er so. no signs on top at all. teh whole top surface of the wort is clear. not eeing any bubbiling out of the airlock watching in a few minutes time span

boo boo said:

You didn't say what temperture your wort was at. By the sound of the amount of yeast you have on the bottom of your fermenter, hook up a blow off tube. Once that sucker starts it will be massive.
Is your wort cloudy looking or clear?

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the temp is right around 64 degrees. its stays near that temp too. id say 62-66 is the range.

id say overall, the wort looks a lil cloudy. towards teh top its a lighter brown but still a bit cloudy. the bottom still looks like about 2 inches of ... i dont know.. cotton. or something. I was very surprised to see this.

i checked the gravity and it is still at the starting level. looks like the yeast hasnt done much of anything yet.

next thoughts are the possibility of adding yeast energizer/nutrient, moving to a bit of a higher temp, or just pitching more yeast. all are possibilities.

kinda waiting it out just a bit, but sorta want to try something. open to any more thoughts.

edit.

hahah andf i just realized i fergot to do almost any aeration of any type before pitching the yeast. hahah wow.

What temp was the water you rehydrated your yeast? What was the temp of the wort when pitched?

cubbies said:

What temp was the water you rehydrated your yeast? What was the temp of the wort when pitched?

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the water that i rehydrated the yeast in I am not really sure about the exact temp. when it heated up, it did not get to boiling, it got to steaming but i let it cool down before putting the yeast in. i could touch the outsides of the bowl and even touch the water with no trouble. i was keeping in mind i wanted it luke warm but not at all hot.

when i was rehydrating, from what i remember, i dumped in the yeast and gave it a qwick stir, then covered it with plastic wrap. let it sit for bout 15-20 mins.
i went back later n stirred in sugar. it was corn sugar, and only about a teaspoon or so. (not sure if corn sugar is bad. i recall using table sugar to proof in the past) im not sure what happened but once i got to the last few steps i was in a rush or distracted or something ....

ive done almost identical rehydrating/proofing steps with a lager and with the wine i made and never had any issues with fermentation starting within the first 24 hrs ...

before i went to get the yeast from upstairs, the wort was defintley under 80 degress. i really want to say it was near 70. again, it was still what i would call a bit warm, but cooled down enough to touch (and to go into a better bottle)

not sure what is good bad, did some stuff cause im hella impatient ... heres whats goin on :

on the eve of the 3rd night (stil without seeing any activity) ....
shook the fukker up a bit. stirred up the yeast and sediment at the bottom. added about 1tsp nutrient and 2 tsp (or so) of energizer. moved carboy to a warmer temp (68-70 degrees)

still nothing. so today, I am getting a white labs ale yeast and pitching it. i hope for a rather speedy fermentation after that. who knows. if fermentation works out, then maybe i can get the "beer" out of the primary and into a secondary. then i can begin a long road of clearing.

we'll see.

*** thats where we are, and thats where im headed. if you have any other idears etc, feel free to speak up, otherwise im pitching more yeast tonight***

I'd be willing to bet that your beer is done. Fermentation can happen over night. I'd take a hydrometer reading before doing anything else. Another way to tell is to look- if you see a big ring of "gunk" above the beer, it's done. I wouldn't pitch more yeast without checking the s.g. If it's still not going or finished, yep, pitch more yeast!

Yooper Chick said:

I'd be willing to bet that your beer is done. Fermentation can happen over night. I'd take a hydrometer reading before doing anything else. Another way to tell is to look- if you see a big ring of "gunk" above the beer, it's done. I wouldn't pitch more yeast without checking the s.g. If it's still not going or finished, yep, pitch more yeast!

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hey. the sg compared to the reading i got like 2 days later was pretty much identical.
ill try another reading tonight and see if its moved at all. otherwise i may pitch

thanks for your help!

jarvis311 said:

i checked the gravity and it is still at the starting level. looks like the yeast hasnt done much of anything yet.

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Was this right before pitching the yeast?

jarvis311 said:

hey. the sg compared to the reading i got like 2 days later was pretty much identical.
ill try another reading tonight and see if its moved at all. otherwise i may pitch

thanks for your help!

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What is the SG that it is stuck at right now?

Beerrific said:

Was this right before pitching the yeast?

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yep, this was within minutes before i put the yeast in.
i was what id refer to as high : 1070-1080

Beerrific said:

What is the SG that it is stuck at right now?

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prior to adding nutrients and temp change, the gravity was still at the same spot, as if nothing happened at all

it 'looked' exactly the smae last night and this am. i will get anothe gravity reading today around pm er so .....

Some questions not previously asked;

Did you boil all 5 gallons of wort? If so, what did you do to aerate?

It sounds like you don't have a thermometer. Get a cheap candy one from Target for $5 and now you know that your rehydration water isn't 125+ killing the yeast and you won't have to put your fingers in the water risking contamination. Our fingers are not that good at measuring temps.

Bobby_M said:

Some questions not previously asked;

Did you boil all 5 gallons of wort? If so, what did you do to aerate?

It sounds like you don't have a thermometer. Get a cheap candy one from Target for $5 and now you know that your rehydration water isn't 125+ killing the yeast and you won't have to put your fingers in the water risking contamination. Our fingers are not that good at measuring temps.

Click to expand...

its a smaller batch. 3 gal. all of the wort was boiled.

i stated earlier, i did not aerate enough at all prior to putting the yeast into the batch. i let the wort go into the carboy rough to let it bubble etc. but i forgot to shake it up or anything like that. cant believe I forgot that.

i had a thermometer clipped to the pot from start to finish. i mentioned earlier I wa snot sure but i believe the wort was near 70 or below. i was also pouring it into a better bottle, so I def wanted to be sure it was significantly cooled down.

I did not use a thermometer to check the temp of the water i mixed the yeast in. This is my best guess of what I screwed up.

some sorta miracle.

FERMENTATION. its about 70 degrees in the room the beer is in. its been in there since last night n all day.

i come home to about 3 inches of foam on top and the airlock bubbiling every 2 or 3 seconds.

good stuff

my problems are : im impatient and a pessimist. and i tend to overanalyze everything.
we look ok for now. we'll see

thanks everyone so far.

Great that you got a start on your yeast. Next time I would suggest that you do not "proof" the yeast. If you are using US 05 it is fresh enough to use without proofing. Dry yeast has all the gylcol reserves it needs and the wort will not need much if any aerating.

Its fine to rehydrate the yeast but if you aren't sure of the temp of the water you are rehydrating in, you may kill off a lot of the yeast due to high temperatures. Just sprinkle it on top of the wort.

KopyKat said:

Great that you got a start on your yeast. Next time I would suggest that you do not "proof" the yeast. If you are using US 05 it is fresh enough to use without proofing. Dry yeast has all the gylcol reserves it needs and the wort will not need much if any aerating.

Its fine to rehydrate the yeast but if you aren't sure of the temp of the water you are rehydrating in, you may kill off a lot of the yeast due to high temperatures. Just sprinkle it on top of the wort.

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I agree. The water you rehydrated the yeast in may have been too hot and killed most of it.
I use a lot of Saf yeast and always rehydrate it, but I check the temp with a thermometer first.
I rehydrated a pack of Saf US-56 yeast yesterday and it was fermenting like mad within 12 hours.
Saf yeast packets have the expirey dates printed near the bottom. Flick through all of the packets at the brew shop and pick the freshest ones.

nice.

yah i will watch this from now on. such a simple thing. just my rushing caused the whole issue.

the brew bubbled like crazy for like 2 days straight. bubbiling at a steady pace. it slowed this am. im checking the gravity later today. ill let you guys know.

rawkin