No Krausen or bubbles in air lock, re-pitch?

[mrdonbonjovi]

Good Morning All,

I've been doing some research on the forums and google but wanted to run my thoughts past you guys.

I brewed a Blackberry Red Ale on Friday. The White Labs English Ale Yeast WL002 was ordered with an icepack and insulated carrier but by the time it got to my house it was warm to the touch (a few days prior). I immediately threw it in the fridge and took it out 3-4 hours before pitching. Shook it violently and opened, noticed some bubbles then pitched at 70-72 degs and placed it in the basement at 65 degs. The last time I had a vial of yeast it exploded when I opened it, since this one only bubbled I was a tad nervous.

Its now been 60 hours and counting and there has been no bubbling or krausen formation. The surface of the beer has been clear and there is no leftover trails of krausen on the sides of the car boy. I've checked every 12 hours or so.

I most likely should have done a starter to confirm the yeast was still active, so I may do this in the future. But for this batch should I give it up to 72 hours then pitch a dry yeast? If so will any other type of English ale yeast be sufficient?

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[kombat]

As you noted, a starter would have avoided all this stress. 60 hours is indeed an extraordinarily long lag time for a liquid yeast, even direct-pitched.

The obvious answer is to take a gravity ready to be certain nothing is happening. If that turns out to be the case, and there's still no activity by the 72-hour mark, then I'd rehydrate some dry yeast and repitch.

 

[BigFloyd]

As you noted, a starter would have avoided all this stress. 60 hours is indeed an extraordinarily long lag time for a liquid yeast, even direct-pitched.

The obvious answer is to take a gravity ready to be certain nothing is happening. If that turns out to be the case, and there's still no activity by the 72-hour mark, then I'd rehydrate some dry yeast and repitch.

This ^^^^^^^^^^.

 

[mrdonbonjovi]

Great guys, thank you for the confirmation!

EDIT: Just an update for future brewers looking for help. I did a gravity reading and just as I thought no change. Re hydrated some dry English ale yeast and pitched last night. This morning bubbles and krausen. Hopefully the taste isn't affected too much. I may leave in secondary for an extra week to try to compensate.

 

[mrdonbonjovi]

On a random thought should I rack and secondary for a bit longer to help mellow out the 3 days with out any fermentation? Any problems with the bad yeast in there?

 

[BigFloyd]

On a random thought should I rack and secondary for a bit longer to help mellow out the 3 days with out any fermentation? Any problems with the bad yeast in there?

Secondary for an extra week isn't going to compensate for much of anything.

The active yeast will consume the dead yeast cells. No worries there.

Just run this as you normally would from the day you re-pitched.

Next time make a starter if using liquid yeast.

 

[winvarin]

I would recommend making a starter for any liquid yeast. But the 002 in particular needs one. It's always been a slow starter for me if I direct pitched. I've had longer than 48 hr lags when direct pitching 2 vials into a 1050-ish wort (a lot of what I have been brewing lately winds up in this range).

However, with a single vial grown for 48 hrs in a 1.2L starter, I usually get positive pressure in my airlock from this yeast, and active krausen in 12 hrs (again, mostly for 1050-55 beers).

One other thing to take care of with this yeast, is that you want to be careful taking it from a warm environment to a cold one, especially while it is actively fermenting. I have had a 3 or 4 degree temp drop cause this yeast to go from full krausen to sleep in a matter of hours.

Your best bet with this yeast is to make a starter, pitch it cool and let it warm into your fermentation temp. Let it ride there for a couple of days, then slowly ramp the temp up as fermentation slows. Treat it right and this yeast makes some heavenly tasting beers.