Little Fermentation activity after 72 hours

I have a batch of 90 shilling/american brown fermenting and is about 72 hours in (at 7 pm this evening).

I'm not seeing much activity, I sanitized and dropped in a hydrometer and I'm not seeing much difference from the original gravity. The temp has dropped in the carboy by about 8 degrees (it's at 72 right now), and I'm wondering if i need to do anything or just LIMA it for the remainder of the week in the primary.


Thanks in advance!

Was it dry or liquid yeast? Did you 'activate' the yeast to ensure that it was viable?

To me, it sounds like everything else is fine. Guessing that the yeast isn't active.

I just brewed my first lager this weekend and it is doing the same thing.... I hate to say it but even if it takes off at this point the original pitching yeast are in questionable health at best.
That being said, my only answer was to hit it with some S-05 ale yeast because I don't have a LHBS near by and I don't want to spend $30'on yeast for a batch that cost about that to begin with.
My luck with mail-order Wyeast has been 50/50.
Answer: Erlenmyer flask and stir plate are en-route. Smack packs are great if you are doing ales ( not really enough yeast in them for lagers) and there great if you are willing and able to NOT brew if there is an issue. But the only way for there not to be a question about the yeast is tomdo a starter.
Lesson lerned

what was your aeration method? A quick shake will just not suffice. I swirl the **** out of mine for a good 5 minutes or so or until there is a good 10" on foamy head on my wort. Or you can pump air into the wort, either way it sounds like you might need to aerate more. Hard to tell though. But, you will need to repitch on your original batch! But aerate the **** out of it

What do you define as "much difference?" Sorry but even 1 degree drop in gravity means you have fermentation starting up.

And "Dropping a hydrometer" in your fermenter really isn't going to allow you to actually see the meniscus to accurately take a reading, just draw off a real sample.

Nugent said:

Was it dry or liquid yeast? Did you 'activate' the yeast to ensure that it was viable?

To me, it sounds like everything else is fine. Guessing that the yeast isn't active.

Click to expand...

It was a dry yeast. I think I may re pitch, though the first batch I brewed was aggressive at the start of fermentation and slowed down as well and it turned out alright.