BIAB and fermentation

[bj2387]

pretty new to brewing. a 5 gallon and 2-1 extract gallon batches. over reacted/ did something wrong on each of them. so quick question

attempted my first BIAB a few weeks ago. hit temps right when mashing and if anything got a little to warm. when it came to yeast though. i may have messed up.

had a dry yeast i had to rehydrate. heated the small amount of water but freaked out it was to hot when i added the yeast. so i shifted between the fridge for a minute or so and back to heat because i felt it got to cold.

long story short it did not ferment at all. no bubbles. even after a week.

did i not extract enough sugars to be fermented or mess up with my yeast. i was sanitzed and everything. like i said fairly new to this so maybe i took to far a leap into BIAB so soon. any thoughts or comments would help

 

[MattyIce]

How warm do you think the mash got?

Even if you goofed the mash a bit, I bet you would still get SOME fermentation. You may try pitching fresh yeast.

 

[Hex23]

It pretty unlikely your mash resulted in NO fermentable. Your thermometer would have had to be way off. I think you probably killed the yeast with the hot water.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Have you taken a gravity reading? That will tell you if you have a problem or not. If you do have a problem, as in it truly has not fermented, then it is likely due to dead yeast as a result of your rehydration issues. As far as fermentability of the wort, did you take an OG gravity reading?

 

[corycorycory09]

No bubbles doesn't necessarily mean no fermentation.

Did you take an OG reading when you put it into the fermentor? Take one now and compare the two numbers.

If you killed the yeast you can always re-pitch a new packet. Your wort still has sugars even if you mashed too hot. If that is the case it is better to pitch sooner rather than later.

 

[bj2387]

the mash never got more then a few degrees warmer. maybe 5 at the most. i was leaning towards the yeast as the main problem as i went from cold to hot a few different times over reacting. pretty sure i just keep on doing one little thing wrong each time i brew but thats ok ill figure it out haha.

if i read my notes correctly i was under my OG. was shooting for 1.069 and got 1.060.

probably going to go back to extract a few more times to really get it down before i move up again.

 

[bj2387]

and i ended up dumping it. i actually did this brew about 3 weeks ago. and life and vacation got in the way and you know how it goes. ill just start fresh this weekend.

 

[LLBeanJ]

and i ended up dumping it. i actually did this brew about 3 weeks ago. and life and vacation got in the way and you know how it goes. ill just start fresh this weekend.

Did you take a gravity reading before you dumped it? It could very well have fermented out without you even noticing and been a perfectly good batch.

 

[bj2387]

i did not sadly. i blame it all on being a beginner haha. i notice or assume one thing is wrong and assume its ruined. ill obviously change my way of thinking on that . but thanks for all the input. its cool to have a place that people answer and care about your questions!

 

[MattyIce]

We do not care about your questions. We care about the innocent beer you dumped!

 

[paperairplane]

Yeah - as above it could easily have been done fermenting, or at least done to where there would be no airlock activity.

There is very little that will make beer into a dumper. It may never be *good*, but most things can be remedied to drinkable.

BIAB is pretty straightforward. Make your life easy - stick to Notty or S05 for a few brews - both are pretty foolproof - and don't worry about rehydrating. Everyone has an opinion, but in my experience (just under 100 gals last year, almost all S05) rehydrating just doesn't make much real world difference.

Depending on what calculator you use with BIAB, you should figure on getting 60-65% efficiency while you figure out your equipment - so you likely didn't miss your OG, you were just estimating more efficiency than what you really got.