Hello everyone,
I recently brewed a batch of my Chocolate Honey Smoked Porter, a house favorite, and pitched in a package of non-rehydrated S-04 as I always do into my glass 6 gallon carboy and swirled the wort around.
The package of the S-04 was slowly brought up to room temperature (68 Degrees F) and the wort was reading between 68-70 degrees when the yeast was pitched. (I got the wort cooled so low because I cooled it in a waterbath outside in -2 Degree F weather which only took 15 mins to go from boiling to 70 Deg F)
I put the sanitized bung and airlock in after aerating and put it in a room that was 58 Deg F and let it go. I have never brewed or fermented this recipe in the winter only in the summer where I average a temp of about 65-68 deg F. When I have pitched this yeast for this recipe in the past I usually get rapid airlock activity within 12 hours.
It's been about 24 hours now and I have no airlock activity, a bunch of trub/yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy, and the batch is 58 deg F.
I understand that you should expect airlock activity as long as 48 to 72 hours after pitching with dry yeast but I have never experienced this before.
I also understand that 58 deg F is pretty low for an ale strain (S-04 recommends fermentation no lower than 60 deg F.)
Because the wort was still pretty cool I have put it in a room that is holding around 68-70 def F and I am hoping that will start fermentation.
My questions and concerns are:
Will fermentation start? I would assume it would because we keep our dry yeast packets in the fridge as homebrewers to keep them 'fresh' which can range from 33-40 deg F.
I heard Jamil Z. say once on a Brew Strong podcast that once yeast have flocculated out of suspension (as seen by the yeast cake* at the bottom of the fermenter) they are unlikely to resuspend and start fermenting again. Should I shake the carboy and manually put the yeast back in suspension in hopes of trying to get the yeast to reactivate in the warmed up wort?
*When I say yeast cake I don't mean the thick one you get after a good fermentation, rather a thin layer of cream colored yeast cells atop the trub in the bottom of the carboy. I'd be worried if I got a massive yeast cake (indicating cell division in cold wort without airlock activity nor krausen).
If this wort does warm up and start fermenting at this relatively low temperature will I have to worry about off flavors or will this brew just be crisper and cleaner than that of one fermented warmer? I would assume that the later of this question is unfeasible considering the stress the yeast have endured. (Or have they endured very little stress because there was no huge fluctuations in temperature, rather gradual one albeit cold?)
Also, I'm not too willing to run out and get another packet of yeast as stingy as that sounds. I'd almost be more willing to buy a commercial brew that is bottle conditioned and dump that in, in hopes of re-engineering the yeast for this wort.
If worst comes to worst I will more than likely bite the bullet and grab another packet of S-04, rehydrate it, and pitch it in.
Thanks everyone in advance for your advice,
Helper
I recently brewed a batch of my Chocolate Honey Smoked Porter, a house favorite, and pitched in a package of non-rehydrated S-04 as I always do into my glass 6 gallon carboy and swirled the wort around.
The package of the S-04 was slowly brought up to room temperature (68 Degrees F) and the wort was reading between 68-70 degrees when the yeast was pitched. (I got the wort cooled so low because I cooled it in a waterbath outside in -2 Degree F weather which only took 15 mins to go from boiling to 70 Deg F)
I put the sanitized bung and airlock in after aerating and put it in a room that was 58 Deg F and let it go. I have never brewed or fermented this recipe in the winter only in the summer where I average a temp of about 65-68 deg F. When I have pitched this yeast for this recipe in the past I usually get rapid airlock activity within 12 hours.
It's been about 24 hours now and I have no airlock activity, a bunch of trub/yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy, and the batch is 58 deg F.
I understand that you should expect airlock activity as long as 48 to 72 hours after pitching with dry yeast but I have never experienced this before.
I also understand that 58 deg F is pretty low for an ale strain (S-04 recommends fermentation no lower than 60 deg F.)
Because the wort was still pretty cool I have put it in a room that is holding around 68-70 def F and I am hoping that will start fermentation.
My questions and concerns are:
Will fermentation start? I would assume it would because we keep our dry yeast packets in the fridge as homebrewers to keep them 'fresh' which can range from 33-40 deg F.
I heard Jamil Z. say once on a Brew Strong podcast that once yeast have flocculated out of suspension (as seen by the yeast cake* at the bottom of the fermenter) they are unlikely to resuspend and start fermenting again. Should I shake the carboy and manually put the yeast back in suspension in hopes of trying to get the yeast to reactivate in the warmed up wort?
*When I say yeast cake I don't mean the thick one you get after a good fermentation, rather a thin layer of cream colored yeast cells atop the trub in the bottom of the carboy. I'd be worried if I got a massive yeast cake (indicating cell division in cold wort without airlock activity nor krausen).
If this wort does warm up and start fermenting at this relatively low temperature will I have to worry about off flavors or will this brew just be crisper and cleaner than that of one fermented warmer? I would assume that the later of this question is unfeasible considering the stress the yeast have endured. (Or have they endured very little stress because there was no huge fluctuations in temperature, rather gradual one albeit cold?)
Also, I'm not too willing to run out and get another packet of yeast as stingy as that sounds. I'd almost be more willing to buy a commercial brew that is bottle conditioned and dump that in, in hopes of re-engineering the yeast for this wort.
If worst comes to worst I will more than likely bite the bullet and grab another packet of S-04, rehydrate it, and pitch it in.
Thanks everyone in advance for your advice,
Helper