No fermentation

[doublebogey10]

Brewed an American Brown Ale (similar to the Rogue Hazelnut clone recipe that's around but also added some honey at the end) last weekend. OG was 1.061.
3-gallon batch. Started with about 5.5 total volume.
BIAB. Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes. 60-minute boil.
Cooled down to around 75 with an ice bath in ~30 minutes.
Pitched a vial of San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) straight in after moving to carboy and aerating a bit (About 3.25 volume into the carboy). With it only being a three-gallon batch of 1.061, didn't think I needed a starter but I also didn't even check the numbers. (Best by date was late Oct).
Sealed it up in the carboy and got nothing. No signs of fermentation. No krausen or airlock activity. Nothing.
After 72 hours, took a reading and it was still 1.061.
Considering I bought the WLP090 online and had it shipped and even though I paid for the ice in shipping, I figured that maybe the yeast was shot due to summer temps (I refrigerated it the moment it arrived and did not have trouble with the other vial of 001 from same shipment that I used for another batch two weeks ago, however).
So, I bought some US-05 from LHBS. Rehydrated it and pitched that to try and get it going. It has been 2.5 days and I just took a reading at it's still 1.061.
This is about my 30th batch of homebrew and sixth batch of BIAB. Have never seen anything like this. Nothing was out of whack on brew day. Same process as always other than some attempts to get better efficiency (squeezing the bag, etc.). I'm pretty confused by this.
Any thoughts on what might be going on and any suggestions of what to do next?

 

[lowlife]

room temp is too cool maybe?

 

[doublebogey10]

room temp is too cool maybe?

Been sitting in a closet at a solid 68 right next to my imperial red.

 

[stpug]

You didn't by chance use an ingredient that contained potassium sorbate did you?

 

[doublebogey10]

You didn't by chance use an ingredient that contained potassium sorbate did you?

Have no idea. Recipe (except it was WLP 090 instead of Pacman as Brewtoad doesn't have 090 listed):

Pale Ale Malt 5.0 lb60 % Mash 36
Belgian Munich 12.0 oz9 % Mash 33
Crystal 75 12.0 oz9 % Mash 34
Brown Malt 8.0 oz6 % Mash 32
Crystal 15 4.0 oz3 % Mash 10
Pale Chocolate Malt 4.0 oz3 % Mash 32
Crystal 120 4.0 oz3 % Mash 32
Honey 8.0 oz6 % – 35
Hops
Name Amount Time Use Form AA
Perle United States 0.5 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 8.0%
Saaz Czech Republic 0.5 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 3.0%
Yeasts
Name Lab Attenuation Temp
Pacman 1764 White Labs 75.0% 60°F – 72°F
Extras
Name Amount Time Use
Irish Moss 1.0 tsp 15.0 min Mash
Hazelnut extract 0.25 oz 0.0 min Bottle

 

[doublebogey10]

You didn't by chance use an ingredient that contained potassium sorbate did you?

Would honey have it? Not sure what kind of honey it was. Got it from Trader Joe's that morning. Already recycled the bottle.

 

[jeffjm]

Not likely...honey doesn't really need preservatives.

Did you maybe have a lot of residual cleaner or sanitizer that would have harmed the yeast?

 

[stpug]

You got me. As you're aware, it seems like a perfectly normal recipe, ingredients, and process. Very strange indeed!!

 

[doublebogey10]

At this point, I'm not sure what to do with it. If it hasn't started now, it's not going to on it's own. I don't want to go buy more yeast if I've already pitched two and they did nothing.
I'm about to dry-hop my imperial red so I had a thought about moving the red to secondary and racking the brown onto the red's yeast cake and seeing what happens. I used 001 with that.

 

[Brulosopher]

This is an anomaly, to be sure...

 

[NewJersey]

At this point, I'm not sure what to do with it. If it hasn't started now, it's not going to on it's own. I don't want to go buy more yeast if I've already pitched two and they did nothing.
I'm about to dry-hop my imperial red so I had a thought about moving the red to secondary and racking the brown onto the red's yeast cake and seeing what happens. I used 001 with that.

great idea. if that doesnt work, i would toss it

 

[CBMbrewer]

This is strange. I'd rack it onto the cake of 001. If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will.

 

[doublebogey10]

Went this morning to move my red to secondary and rack the troublesome batch of brown onto the 001 yeast cake. I check both batches and all of the sudden, there's a full head of krausen on the brown. This is a week after brewing and almost five days after pitching the second yeast, the US05.
Weird.

 

[paithian]

I was going to say did you taste any of the samples it may have just finished really fast and your hydormeter was out of wack. But with krausen showing up prolly not the issue