Very Slow Fermentation

Hi, I'm new to this thread...I love it! Lots of great advice.

I've got a quick question. About a month ago, my friend and I brewed 2 batches. My batch (a Red Wheat...I'm pretty excited) went smoothly as usual. I'm actually planning on bottling it tonight.

However, my friend's batch hasn't really fermented at all. When we mashed, we didn't get a rolling boil like usual. Other than that we followed the usual routine, including steeping the grains, adding syrup extract, and cooling the wort. We thought the wort might have been a little too hot when we added yeast, which might have killed it. So we added more yeast about a week later. The airlock bubbled a little more over the past 3 weeks, and has since stopped. My batch had good foam built up, and his had none, yet it did ferment a little. We haven't checked the gravity since we cooked.

Would it have to do with not boiling the wort when we added hops? Or is it sometimes normal for the wort to not build up foam during fermentation?

Thanks for your help.

Did you take a gravity reading before you pitched your yeast? If so just take another reading to see if it fermented. If not, take one now and take another in a few days and see if it drops at all. You said you had some airlock activity, that means you had some fermentation. Without gravity readings it's pretty hard to tell how much fermentation you had

You'll need to use gravity reading to determine whether or not fermentation occurred, anything else is just a guestimate method.

Also, just a terminology nit-pick, extract brewers do not mash they only boil. Mashing implies that you took some base malt and soaked it in water at the appropriate temperature for enzymes to convert the starches to sugar thus making wort. Steeping grains and adding extract to make your wort is not the same as mashing.

I just wanted to clear that up as your post implies that you boiled your mash, something you would not want to do as an AG brewer.