2nd All Grain Batch, Bacteria or No Bacteria

On the 4th, I did my second ever All grain batch. The Mashing and Sparging went a good as I could have hoped for and the same can be said for the boil.

I was using liquid yeast for the first time. I made my yeast starter the night before. When I woke up the next morning, there was not activity in my Starter. I did not panic because I had read on here that sometimes, the starter ferments very quickly, so I pitched the starter into my wort. The next mourning I woke up, nothing, absolutly no activity in my airlock. I had a back up vial of yeast just in case so I heated up some water and stirred in some corn sugar, cooled it down and pitched the extra vial of yeast into that (I was out of DME) I waited a day and then pitched it into the wort. The next mourning, nothing. There is not homebrew store close by me so I didn't really know what to do so I just waited. Finally Sunday mourning (5 days after the brew) I woke up and bam, activity and lots of it, and there was a thick layer of foam on top of the wort.

My only concern now is, is this the yeast I pitched, wild yeast, or bacteria? I have over 100 extract brews under my belt and this was my second All grain, I have never had a bacterial or wild yeast infection before, at least that I noticed. So I am not sure what to make of the beer. It is in my secondary now, until I find out different, I am treating the beer like It is going OK.

Anybody ever had yeast take 5 days to start working? What are some tell tell signs that I have a bacterial infection?

Well if it is bad its bad not much you can do...but I doubt it.

Give it a couple days...when the airlock activity subsides, taste it and take a hydro reading...those together should tell the tale.

Liquid yeast can be slow. I have better luck with Wyeast than White labs (but that varies based on how the suppliers treat the yeast before you get it, Wyeast stands up better to international travel). Make your starter a couple days before.

Well, this yeast that I used is White Labs, plus it is a Platnium Series yeast and is only availble January and Feburary of the Year. This Experation on the Yeast vile was May 2007. I bought this yeast back in April (as I have been wanting to use it for awile) so it was out of date which is why I got two just in case.

I when I was transfering it to my seondary, I took a good wiff, I got the hops aroma very strongly and I also got that very fruity Ale smell, nothing that I would call off accept maybe, I got a fruity aroma that reminded me very much of apples, could just be the yeast. I just have never heard of yeast taking 5 days to become active. I was just afraid that it was bacteria or wild yeast.

What was the O.G. of your beer? Large beers can take a while when under pitched.

Dang, if it was out of date when you bought it they really should have just given it to you. Every time B3 has shipped me out of date yeast they replaced it. Not that out of date yeast doesn't work, but it is slower.

I'd make your starter more like 2 or 3 days ahead of time.

Nothing you can do now in any event. If it looks normal and smells normal it's probably fine. I always keep a handful of dry SafeAle yeast packs around so that if there's nothing going on after 24 hours I can pitch one of those in there. ALWAYS does the trick.

Cheers

Edwort,

When I checked my OG, I assumed my Hydrometer was off or something.

According to Beersmith, with 75% efficency, my beer should have had an OG of 1.067. But when I took my hydrometer reading, it said the OG was 1.093. I checked to make sure there was no bubbles and even checked it again, same thing. My wort was a little warm but I used beer smith to make the adjustment. So either my hydrometer was broke or I was damn efficient this time, maybe too efficient. I only used twelve pounds of grain for a five gallon batch so I am leaning towards my hydrometer being broken.

Forrest said:

Edwort,

When I checked my OG, I assumed my Hydrometer was off or something.

According to Beersmith, with 75% efficency, my beer should have had an OG of 1.067. But when I took my hydrometer reading, it said the OG was 1.093. I checked to make sure there was no bubbles and even checked it again, same thing. My wort was a little warm but I used beer smith to make the adjustment. So either my hydrometer was broke or I was damn efficient this time, maybe too efficient. I only used twelve pounds of grain for a five gallon batch so I am leaning towards my hydrometer being broken.

Click to expand...

I'm betting busted hydrometer. 12# of 2-Row at 80% potential with 100% efficiency would only put you at 1.089. While your 1.093 is not much higher, 100% efficiency is quite a stretch (but wouldn't it be nice! :rockin

the apple smell can be coming from high fermtemps. but i would say makeing the starter was the way to go. as long as the carboy or bucket was sealed you should be fine. was there any furrey floating on top of the wort?

No little fizzys on the top but like I said, the top is covered with a thick layer of foam now. It started foaming up the same day I started noticing activity in the air lock.

As for the high fermentation temps, I have the carboy in the coolest room in my house, it a small bath room that is never used and the door always stays close, plus I have it half submerged in water in the bathtube. My Thermometer reads 69.6 as the temp.

RDWHAHB! It always works. Your beer is fine. Even if this was a syrup/powder batch you would have experienced the lag. Sometimes 48 hours for brand new white labs. I would not doubt that it would take 5 days for expired white labs. I used to use WL but have switched to Wyeast XL packs and they seem to do a great job, especially with a starter - 30 minutes once for a wheat brew.

White labs is still good but lag time is aweful. You are fine. As long as there are no stringy fuzzy thingies floating.

- WW

i'm guessing lag time from the second vial, first one never worked at all.

relax. at this point, you could throw it away and be out all the ingredients and your time so far...or you can just let it run its course, and see what it tastes like after primary ends. if its not funky, its fine.