I learned my lesson

I made a porter last sunday and pitched the yeast around 8pm. No activity at all for two day. I posted one of those Oh NO! My beer isn't fermenting threads. Then by wendsday bang fermentation started... :fro:

I am learning that as well.

Every bag of yeast seems to act a little differntly. Some seem to take off within a few hours and just used dry yeast for the first time and it took a day and half or so before it started and it seemed to ferment longer then the liquid yeast.

Same here. Did a starter from a bottle of Bells Two Hearted Ale and after no activity for 2 days, pitched a bag of Wyeast 1272 and still nothing after a day. Sure enough on the second day of pitching wyeast, it had a little head on it. Patience is a virtue and I'm slowly learning that as well!

I think the answer to my problems is making a starter... but then again I just feel like i could ruin that too...

I still never ruined a batch of beer. Yeast just seems like such a delicate organism and since some people don't understand the chemistry aspect of the yeast itself we tend to worry because we don't know weather the yeast are dead or they are multiplying.

My conclusion is to start making yeast starters. Just so I know that the yeast is working and I can have peace of mind knowing that my beer is fine.

+1 to starters. Starters can help reduce off-flavors that may be attributed to stressed yeast, ensure full attenuation, ensure quick start of your fermentation which lessens risk of infections taking hold (and alleviating the new brewer's fears about when their fermentation will begin), and overall lead to better beers.

Cheers.

#1 lesson for all brewers.

Relax - Have a homebrew.

Also a +1 on starters. After this last ordeal and researching more into it, I ordered a stir plate and flask to do a starter every time. I'm also going to start cold conditioning my secondaries.

since I started using starters religiously for all liquid yeast beers, I've never noticed a lag time longer than overnight.

A big yes on starters.

I did what I thought was going to be a great Kölsch but wound up with a "clove-like" flavor which I attribute to underpitching(I did not use a starter)

Needless to say, I got my (birthday)stirplate on Tuesday and plan on getting a lot of use out of it!

Go starters

Lag time will depend on where your yeast are at in their cycle. If you dump a starter at high krausen you will have a rapid start to fermentation, but then again that means you just diluted your hard work with crappy starter beer. Other things come into play such as how you oxygenate the work. Pure O2 (from my observations) gets things going faster than other forms of wort oxygenation.