Fermentation not happening!!!

Well, the title says it all. This is my first batch. The airstop started bubbling as soon as I installed it, but stopped shortly after.
Quick rewind: I wasn't sure when to pitch the yeast, and when it came time I also read about re hydrating. Yikes. I quickly did some sanitizing, boiled water, waited for it to come down to 95* or so and put the yeast in the water...damn that smelled good.
Since I wasn't sure when to pitch it, I pitched it while pouring the wort from the brewpot into the carboy while aerating the wort.
Anyway, 9 days later a hydrometer reading showed 1.064. I started at 1.070. Needless to say, nothing happened (as far as fermentation). The wort smells like the re hydrated yeast...I didn't dare try it....it smelled just like the yeast concoction i poured in on brewing day.
The question is do I add more yeast? is this batch ruined?
Thanks for any insight.
Steve

What was the temp of the wort when you pitched? 95 degrees seems a little steep. I would assume you just killed the yeast. Check the temp, and pitch another packet. It will ferment out and be just fine.

1. you really need to cool the water down to fermentation temps before re hydrating the yeast.
Depending on strain, 65-74 degrees. 90 something is far to hot.

Id recommend you throw the unopened yeast pack in some idophor to sterilize it along with the scissors you plan to use. ( i prefer idophor because it takes about 2 mins to disinfect in cold water. follow recommended usage on the bottle )

AFTER aerating COOLED wart, pitch the yeast.

Aerating: I typically put the cooled wort in my fermenter, cap it with a sterilized rubber stopper, and shake the bejesus out of it with my hand over the stopper. Remove rubber stop, pitch, put stopper w blow off tube into your blowoff vessel.

Take a hydro reading 3 days in a row. If the SG is still the same, fermentation has stopped and you may need to re-pitch. remember to sanitize whatever you are using to remove beer from the fermenter to take the reading. ( auto siphon, tubing, etc. )

SurfJunkie said:

1. you really need to cool the water down to fermentation temps before re hydrating the yeast.
Depending on strain, 65-74 degrees. 90 something is far to hot.

Click to expand...

Closer to 64... 74 is still a bit steep if you want to avoid off-flavors unless you're doing some types of Belgian ales. Even my Belgian Pale I brew though I pitch it at 60F and get better results than when I used to pitch at 68F.

Rehydration should be around 104F, however you don't want to pitch it until the wort is in the 60's. You also don't want rehydrated yeast sitting around for more than 30 minutes or they start to starve.

So, cool the wort, then rehydrate. After about 20 minutes, add small portions of the wort to the rehydrated yeast until their temperature (yeast and wort) are within 10F of each other...THEN pitch.

95 is fine for re-hydrating. I think that is the recommendation. You normally let is sit a bit and then stir it into the water before pitching. What temperature was the wort?

95 is too hot for optimal ferm flavors, but I don't think it would have killed the yeast. Could be bad yeast, though that is rare with dried yeast. Re-aerate, re-pitch, see what happens.

Thanks, guys!
I'll re-pitch tonight.

Just to clarify....the wort was at 70 when I put the re-hydrated yeast in the carboy. The water I used to re-hydrate the yeast was at 95 when I put the yeast in. It might have been too hot still when I put it in the wort.

Sounds like a bad packet of yeast or improper rehydration, 70 should not have been an issue for the yeast. Are you sure you rehydrated properly? Kept tabs on the temps and didn't let them sit too long?