Help! Fermentation will not start

Hi all,

Ok, I'll try to be as detailed as possible. The major components of the recipe are as follows:

-Water from a spring that's nearby a camp that belongs to my wife's grandfather. They've had it tested and there's nothing in it that would inhibit fermentation. It's very clean.
-9 lbs. Coopers light malt extract syrup
-1 lb CaraRed grain
-3 types of hops (forget what they are off the top of my head - one was Tetteneger (sp?))
-3 bags of frozen raspberries (the kind you get at the grocery store)
-White labs German Bock yeast

I steeped the grains at 155 for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of spring water, then added the syrup, brought to a boil, added the first hop and boiled for 30 minutes, added the second hop and boiled for 15 minutes, added the third hop and boiled for 15 minutes, then turned off the heat. I then added some of the cool spring water to bring the wort down to 180 degrees and put the raspberries in for 15 minutes. I put it all into my primary fermenter (the plastic bucket - well-sanitized and rinsed) and used my wort chiller to bring the temperature down to 75 degrees. I aerated the wort by shaking it around a good bit and then shook up the yeast as per instructions and pitched it. I put the lid on, attached the blow-off hose, and when I woke up this morning, there was nada. I attached an airlock and shook up the fermenter again to aerate it, and as of lunchtime, I still have nothing. Help!

Oh, one note: I ordered this stuff from California and I live in PA, and it took about 6 days to get here. Could the time in the truck have damaged the yeast?

Well, you're going to have some lag time w/o making a starter. Also, a truck ride in the middle of summer very well could have killed all/most/part of the yeast. Give it some more time, then add more yeast.

So is it still less than 24 hours since pitching? If so, too early to worry. It is possible that the long trip and heat killed the yeast, but it's too early to know for sure. If it's all sealed up nice and good (which it sounds like it is), give it a little more time.

Lessons for next time:

1. Have some backup dry yeast in the fridge
2. If there are any concerns about the yeast's viability, make a starter a day or so ahead of time.

Thanks, guys. Answer this for me, because I keep seeing it: what is a starter?

where is Pa are you?


Do a lot of you guys see start times over 24 hours? I've yet to do a batch that took longer than 8.

I see you're in Mechanicsburg, Todd. I live about 30 miles north of Harrisburg.

Good link on how to make a yeast starter:

http://www.beerdude.com/yeast_starter.shtml

Man, people are on the ball in these forums! Thanks!

If fermentation doesnt start in 24 - 48 hours, you could find a local homebrew store and repitch your yeast. For more info on how to repitch, search the forums. That's what I do... I'm sure Todd could point you in the right direction for a homebrew store. Just a quick google search turned up this one in your area http://www.mrsteves.com/ . Why are you ordering from CA?

I'm originally from Warren, PA in the NW.

There's one about 35 miles from me in Lemoyne, PA. I've been there before; I'm just lazy. I order from www.morebeer.com (who is based in CA), because they have a decent selection. If it doesn't start by tomorrow, I will go get more yeast on Saturday and pitch it.

Update: I went to a local homebrew supply shop and bought the exact same yeast that I had ordered online, and it worked just fine! It's been really active for about 36 hours now. Thanks all!

I have a copule of questions for your. 1.) Isn't Bock yeast a lager strain? This would take some temperature control measures that you haven't really seemed to mention anything about yet. 2.) Where did you get this recipe? It sounds...interesting. I don't know that the characteristcs you would get from a bock yeast strain would go that well with raspberries, but alas that is the joy of homebrewing! You can do whatever you want, and without trying I guess we would never know!

Yeah, it's weird, every time I pitch with liquid (White Labs), fermentation never commences. Maybe it's just my bad luck, but I'm batting .000 with liquid and 1.000 with dry (well, except for the Wit strain we cultured from the bottom of a bottle of Belgian White). I made a barleywine and a crazy version of porter over the weekend. I pitched dry nottingham into the barleywine, and in a few hours, it was bubbling like stacatto. In the porter, I pitched liquid White Labs Dry English Ale yeast that I had bought from a bricks-n-mortar homebrew shop and kept in perfect conditions ever since then, and fermentation never happened. 24 hours later, the wort was calm as ever...so I repitched with Safeale US-56, and in a few hours...bam, fermentation like crazy.

ayrton said:

I see you're in Mechanicsburg, Todd. I live about 30 miles north of Harrisburg.

Click to expand...

Where abouts? I'm from New Bloomfield which is about 30 north of Harrisburg.

What local shop did you go to? I have yet to find one.

<b>Der Meister</b>

I'm on the other side of the river in Millersburg. The shop I go to is in Lemoyne, and it's called Scotzin Brothers. You can literally just go down 11 & 15 and stay on 11 when it branches, and that will go straight through Lemoyne. As you come into town, make a right when you see a blue sign for a Chiropractic center (I forget who the Chiropractor is), and then make another right into the alley, and the building will be on your left. It's kind of a flesh-tone building. The entrance is all the way on the right side - don't be confused by the steps going towards the basement. They've got a great selection.

<b>clayof2day</b>

White Labs actually makes a German Bock Yeast, even though the recipe calls for German Lager yeast. The Joy of Homebrewing (by Papazian) says that the lagering at cool temperatures is optional, and it said to pitch at 75 degrees. Also, the recipe is just the Elementary Penguin Maibock recipe in Papazian's book with raspberries added once the boil ends and reaches ~180 degrees, and then left there for the primary fermentation. However, I had to make some substitutions. First, the recipe calls for John Bull light malt extract, and I could only get Coopers. It also called for different hops than what I could get, so I substituted based on alpha acid content. It ended up being Mt. Hood (boiling - 30 minutes), some hops from my wife's aunt of unknown type (15 minutes), and Tettenager (sp?)(15 more). I'll let you know how it turns out.