Help, fermentation.

[Linkd1]

Started my second brew friday, an imperial american style ipa. Because of the large amount of malt used we were expecting a strong reaction during fermentation but our blow off tube is yet to produce any bubbles. Ive read that its possible for fermentation to occur without bubbles but im worried that maybe our yeast was a dud. I dont want to take the lid off to check the gravity and risk exposure. Any advice would be very helpful!

 

[tvtoms]

People may ask what strain of yeast, wet or dry, did you make a starter, was it active as a starter and what was the temp of the wort when you pitched and other details I'm forgetting.

I can say with the dry yeasts I've used without starters and wort temp mid 60's to 70ish, they sometimes take a couple of days to get going.

 

[iaefebs]

I do 11 gallon batches. I split the brew into two buckets. I pitch the same amount of yest in each batch. one bucket will show airlock activity and the other one nothing. When I finish fermenting both batches will have identical final gravity's. It's just the nature of things. Gravity checks are the only way to tell for sure. But as someone else mentioned you can shine a flashlight through the top and see if there is any krausen ring formed.

 

[eeverwine]

Linkd1 and I are brew partners. To answer the questions tvtoms asked, we used a wyeast smack pack called American something or other, and we pitched it into our wort after we cooled it with a wort chiller. It was definitely in the 60-70 range. Also we used a yeast nutrient (fermax) in the last 15 minutes of the boil, and added brown sugar to knock up the alcohol content. This was an extract/specialty grain brew, we steeped the grains first and added the extract at various points in the boil. Do to the large amounts of sugar and the quality of the yeast, I figured we'd see a significant reaction early on... Of course it has only been 2 days........

 

[Calder]

Just a smack-pak, no starter, and a high gravity beer, you could be waiting for a while. High gravity is not a nice environment for yeast; in some high gravity beers, people wait until fermentation is well on it's way to add some of the fermentables. It is also going to take a lot of time to reproduce to get to the right population level to ferment the beer.

Did you aerate the heck out of it. Hope you did, that yeast is going to need all the help it can get.

What was your gravity? If it's too much, the osmotic pressure can kill the yeast (probably not the case here).

 

[BradleyBrew]

Take the blow off tube out and take a peek through that opening to see if you have fermentation taking place... If its been 48+ hours draw (if you have a spigot) a sample and check the gravity. If nothing is happening in another 24 hours we may want to consider repitching. Do you have any dry yeast back up on hand? If not grab a few packs of at least Nottingham to pitch in a pinch.

I'm not sure if the OG has a big effect on yeast cus they love sugar like a fat kid loves cake but you want to make a starter because as the alcohol levels increase during fermentation this has a negative effect on the lil yeasties so having a higher cell count is a must!

 

[Revvy]

In the 21st century yeast isn't really prone to being "duds." It's not like 30 years. 99.9999999% if the time the yeast is working fine.

If it's been over 72 hours use the ONLY tool that will tell you what's happening, a hydrometer. Anything else is falty.

 

[eeverwine]

This has been very helpful. It will be 48 hours at midnight eastern time tonight, and I'll be getting home just before that to take a look and see if we have any visible signs. I'm pretty sure I aerated it sufficiently, but then again being fairly new to this and this being my first "Big Beer" I may have underestimated it. As to our gravity.... I knew there was something I did wrong. And I'm sure this will make you all cringe but... I didn't take a reading.

But hopefully I can fly blind for another day and if need be pitch some dry yeast on there. Now if I do need to throw some dry yeast in, is there anything special I should do to it first?

Also, this is still in our primary bucket with a blow off tube, when do you think I should transfer into the glass carboy and dry hop?

And should I take a reading tomorrow and use that as my OG for future reference? I know that was a big noob mistake, will be more diligent in the future

 

[Calder]

Also, this is still in our primary bucket with a blow off tube, when do you think I should transfer into the glass carboy and dry hop?

When you think fermentation is done (and you have confirmed with stable gravity readings), leave it at least another week before doing anything. Then Dry hop where it is or transfer and dry hop; your choice.

You can make beer quickly, but almost always they turn out better if you give them some time. My average time for a beer (fermentation to bottle) this year is over 5 weeks, and that does not include any sours or Brett beers which could take a year or more.

 

[Revvy]

I dont want to take the lid off to check the gravity and risk exposure. Any advice would be very helpful!

This is something you have to get over.

In homebrewing there is so much that we advise folks not to do, yet the one thing that EVERY book, podcast, magazine and website talks about is gravity readings....

How do you think we get them?

Do you think the advice to take them is a vast conspiracy by us old timers to ruin millions of new brewer's batches, so that they flee the hobby and give it a bad rap? Or so they make crappy beer and we kick your asses in contests?

With simple sanitization practices openning the fermenter to take a reading is perfectly safe. You won't spoil your beer.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years.

That's why you need to take a gravity reading to know how your fermentation is going, NOT go by airlocks, or size of krausen, or a calendar, the horoscope or the phases of the moon (those things in my mind are equally accurate).

The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It's the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

It's the same with your beer. Using anything other than a hydrometer to know what's going on, is just guessing.

 

[Linkd1]

Thanks to everyone for all the responses. This forum is amazing and is definitely going to help me shake bad habits and irrational fears.

 

[Linkd1]

As of today there are signs that fermentation has been occuring, the head is up to almost the bucket lid. Tonight we are transfering from the bucket to the carboy and getting a gravity reading to learn for sure that things are on track. All of this has helped me calm down considerably so i can just be patient with the thing. Thanks again!

 

[phenry]

As of today there are signs that fermentation has been occuring, the head is up to almost the bucket lid. Tonight we are transfering from the bucket to the carboy and getting a gravity reading to learn for sure that things are on track. All of this has helped me calm down considerably so i can just be patient with the thing. Thanks again!

4 day primary? I would seriously reconsider transferring it already, especially for a high gravity beer. The yeast need time to work, just because it looks like it's fermenting doesn't mean it's anywhere near done. I'd wait AT LEAST another week before you even think about taking a hydrometer reading.

 

[Linkd1]

4 day primary? I would seriously reconsider transferring it already, especially for a high gravity beer. The yeast need time to work, just because it looks like it's fermenting doesn't mean it's anywhere near done. I'd wait AT LEAST another week before you even think about taking a hydrometer reading.

Thanks! We decided to wait another week before sending it to secondary. Incidentally, some serious bubbling started happening yesterday as well. Good things come to those who wait.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Thanks! We decided to wait another week before sending it to secondary. Incidentally, some serious bubbling started happening yesterday as well. Good things come to those who wait.

There's a lot of discussion/debate on the use of secondaries. What I get the impression of is that the idea of "don't bother unless you are dry hopping, aging for a long time, or doing something else odd (like adding fruit)" is becoming more and more the standard. Personally, I agree with this, I'll just leave it in primary for 3 weeks at least and go directly to bottling.

That said, what is most important is that if you want to use a secondary, that you don't do so until your beer has been at a stable gravity for several days.

Edit: BTW where in Philly are you?

 

[Linkd1]

There's a lot of discussion/debate on the use of secondaries. What I get the impression of is that the idea of "don't bother unless you are dry hopping, aging for a long time, or doing something else odd (like adding fruit)" is becoming more and more the standard. Personally, I agree with this, I'll just leave it in primary for 3 weeks at least and go directly to bottling.

That said, what is most important is that if you want to use a secondary, that you don't do so until your beer has been at a stable gravity for several days.

Edit: BTW where in Philly are you?

Yeah, ive been getting that impression from everything ive read as well. We are actually planning on dry hopping this one which we have not tried before. We're going for an imperial ipa. Any advice on how long before we check the gravity, transfer to the secondary, and dry hop?

I'm from northeast philly.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Any advice on how long before we check the gravity, transfer to the secondary, and dry hop?

I'd give it at least a week. Personally, I don't bother checking the gravity until the krausen has fallen AND it's been a week (unless the krausen is staying for an abnormally long time).

I'm from northeast philly.

Ah, ok. I'm in fishtown/No Libs.