36 hours - no signs of fermentation

[NOISEpollution]

Brewing my first all grain batch in years but getting a little nervous. OG of the IPA was 1.060. After cooling the wort to about 72 degrees, I dumped 2 PurePitch packets of WLP002 into the bucket. It’s been sitting at 66 degrees since. 36 hours later and I have no airlock activity and no smell coming through the air lock either.

Should I start to worry and what steps should I take to push this thing along?

 

[myndflyte]

Maybe the lid isn't on tight and gas is escaping though somewhere else? Really the only way to tell if nothing is happening is to take a gravity reading.

 

[RM-MN]

Maybe the lid isn't on tight and gas is escaping though somewhere else? Really the only way to tell if nothing is happening is to take a gravity reading.

Or lift the lid and look for bubbles. Bucket lids often leak a little and there isn't much gas being produced at the onset of fermentation so just a tiny leak will allow the gas to escape without bubbling the airlock. A hydrometer reading might not tell you much unless you were sure that your OG reading was very accurate and that the yeast had had time to work.

If you have no bubbling in the beer itself (not the airlock) then wait another 30 hours and check again. If you have no activity after 3 days, then you can pitch more yeast. Sometimes yeast are slow to get started.

 

[NOISEpollution]

Maybe the lid isn't on tight and gas is escaping though somewhere else? Really the only way to tell if nothing is happening is to take a gravity reading.

Would I be risking infection by popping the lid open to get a reading? Should I wait a little longer?

 

[RM-MN]

Would I be risking infection by popping the lid open to get a reading? Should I wait a little longer?

Did you infect it when you put it into the fermenter? If not it is unlikely that popping the lid open for a few seconds now would infect it.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

open the lid and look

is there a "ring of crud" around the edge of the surface on the wall of the fermenter? if so fermentation is mostly complete.

is there "a bunch of foam and bubbles" and some nasty looking stuff? then it is normal and you have active fermentation

does it look like it did the day you sealed the fermenter? if so carefully pull a sample and measure it, this will determine the need for new yeast.

66 room temperature or 66 via a stick on thermometer?
move it to a slightly warmer place to "speed things up", say 68 or 70-72 and once things get started return it to the 66 degree room.

two packets of 002 are more than enough for that size beer

possibly , you had a leak in the lid and fermentation is complete or nearly complete

 

[tooldudetool]

Maybe the yeast was old or mishandled? This is one reason making a starter can be beneficial, you can verify yeast health. When I've had leaky bucket lids I would sniff around the lid, you can smell the co2 and esters pretty easily. Or just push down hard all around the outside of the lid, if it's actively fermenting the airlock will start bubbling within 10 seconds or so...

 

[NOISEpollution]

Thanks for all of the responses.

Raised the temp to about 70F. Started getting some serious airlock activity around 48 hours after pitching. Dropped it back to 65F and two days later it’s still going strong.