sediment on bottom

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briguy13

briguy13

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I brewed American cream ale Sunday, everything went great with brewing. It's been sitting in a 6.5 gallon carboy for 3 days with absolutely no signs of activity. All the sediments are visible on the bottom. Looks the color of the dme. No foam on top. I shook the hell out of it last night and let it sit. This morning it all settled back to bottom. A couple of burps out of airlock. It just looks like standing worth in a glass carboy with crap on the bottom ...a giant turned off beer lava lamp!
I originally added dry yeast to 80-90° water for 15 min. Before adding to worth that was 70°
Carboy is stored at 65-74°
I know ...just wait it out, but it's going on 60 hours and no signs of fermentation. I might repitch a new yeast. Is sediment sitting on bottom normal? Or clue to some problem?
 
briguy13 said:
I brewed American cream ale Sunday, everything went great with brewing. It's been sitting in a 6.5 gallon carboy for 3 days with absolutely no signs of activity. All the sediments are visible on the bottom. Looks the color of the dme. No foam on top. I shook the hell out of it last night and let it sit. This morning it all settled back to bottom. A couple of burps out of airlock. It just looks like standing worth in a glass carboy with crap on the bottom ...a giant turned off beer lava lamp!
I originally added dry yeast to 80-90° water for 15 min. Before adding to worth that was 70°
Carboy is stored at 65-74°
I know ...just wait it out, but it's going on 60 hours and no signs of fermentation. I might repitch a new yeast. Is sediment sitting on bottom normal? Or clue to some problem?
Click to expand...

Im relatively new to this mate but but sediment is normal as the sun coming up every day...
 
If it's been 3 days with absolutely no activity, you probably have to think about re-pitching. I don't have a lot of experience with dry yeast, I typically use liquid, but signs of fermentation should be evident within 3 days. Since you already shook it up, give it another day in case the yeast got shocked and fell out of suspension and needed a shake to get going. If you still doing see anything, re-pitch. Just make sure you re-hydrate it correctly and try to pitch it at the same temperature as the wort.
 
Could it have happened at night? Cream ales usually low OG. A yeast packet has enough to crush it quickly.
 
Well,if your rehydrated yeast was at 90F,the wort at 70F,that's part of your problem. The rehydrate must be within 10 degrees of wort temp to keep from shocking the yeast. I did that with liquid yeast once,& it took a day or so extra for visible fermentation to start. In essence,lengthening the reproductive phase,known as lag time. Wait till 72 hours comes around & see if it gets going. A hydrometer check wouldn't be a bad thing at this point either...
 
What about shaking it up again? That started the airlock moving a little. Kind of unsettled the sediment at the bottom.
 
No - don't shake again unless you absolutely know what's going on. Take a gravity sample first and foremost. Sometimes beers do ferment out quicker than expected, and that sediment could be the krausen that already dropped - by shaking it in that case, you'd simply be risking aerating an already fermented beer, which will lead to an oxidized beer, which will be bad.

Check the gravity, see where you're at. If you're still at or near your OG, then think about pitching new yeast. If you're at or near your expected FG, then leave it to condition for a few days. But do not take any action until you've checked the gravity and know what you've got on your hands!
 
To reiterate what others have said...Check the gravity. Gravity is the only way to know if fermentation has occurred. I have had beers ferment out over night, it's possible to miss it.
 
Stratslinger pretty much nailed it. Don't shake it again,or oxydation could make it taste like musty cardboard in a damp basement. That's nasty...:drunk:
 
Well, I got home from work and the Carboy was Rockin! Major fermentation going on. This is awesome. Temp in utility room is 73.3, maybe the yeast woke up? Pretty cool to see. This is a huge confidence boost. Now I just let it work and monitor temp.
 
ForumRunner_20130731_161920.jpg
 
I'm trying to keep it around or under 72°. It looks like it's boiling, pretty cool. Patience is definitely the hardest part of homebrewing.
 
Just an idea, 73* is probably more like78* or 80* in the fermentor. This can lead to some really unpleasant off flavors, especially for a cream ale. Get a large keg bucket (they're like 5-10 bucks at Walmart) , fill it water and put your fermentor in it. The add some frozen water bottles in it until the temperature goes down to about 65* in the bucket with water. Lower is also fine. If it's too warm, you might not enjoy the result. You can also Cover the fermentor with a wet t-shirt and have a fan blow on it. Make yourself a swamp cooler. Best of luck and brew on!
 
You really don't gain much re-hydrating the dry yeast, I just dump it in the wort (mine comes out of the therminator at around 76) never had it not chugging away by the next morning
 
I'm pretty limited with space in utility room. It's still the coolest place in the house due to the AC.
It's holding temp at 71-73°.
I'LL Try to lower best I can.
 
briguy13 said:
I'm pretty limited with space in utility room. It's still the coolest place in the house due to the AC.
It's holding temp at 71-73°.
I'LL Try to lower best I can.
Click to expand...

Invest in a swamp cooler. A $5 rope tub from Walmart and some frozen ice bottles. Won't take up a lot of room, and will do wonders for your beer.
 

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