plan B for starting fermentation after 72 hours

[A-Juice]

OK. So I brewed my first batch saturday afternoon. Midwest honey porter extract kit.

I know that it can take up to 72 hours for signs of fermentation. And I know that after 72 hours and no signs of fermentation, I should take a hydrometer reading.

But what is my plan B and when should I kick it into action?

when I take the hydrometer reading, I know I am looking for a drop, but what should I do pending the reading? In other words, if it drops to the final gravity reading, I can conclude that stealth fermentation took place. If it hasnt dropped at all, I can conclude that no fermentation has taken place. What if it has dropped by something small like .004 or so? do I continue to wait?

Here is some additional data.

Midwest honey porter extract kit.

target starting gravity = 1.054

measured starting gravity = 1.046 (I think I used too much water and didnt boil hard enough to boil off the extra and also didnt get every bit of extract out of the jug.)

used dry yeast - safeale s-04. rehydrated in warm water about 45 minutes prior to pitching. I think that some of the yeast solids stayed in the rehydrating cup and didnt make it into the fermentor and suspect this to be possible contributing cause. BTW, when you rehdrate dry yeast, is that a "proof" of yeast health? What signs am I looking for to know if the yeast is good or not?

Pitched yeast at 78*F and have maintained fermentor between 64* and 69* F in my swamp cooler.

I dropped the wort out of my CFC into a glass carboy with the discharge tube at the top of the carboy. also shook the carboy a little to aerate, but I wouldnt be surprised if I didnt aerate enough.

I do have an extra pack of the same dry yeast and was thinking that one possible plan B would be to sprinkle it into the fermentor after 72 hours and a hydrometer reading. Is this a good plan B or is there a better one?

So help me out here.

BTW, special thanks to...

Yooper (I think) for the igloo cube swamp cooler with insulated top cut to fit a carboy neck

bobby M for the counterflow chiller design and also the advice to cool with ice water and the waterproof thermometer probe

and I forget who's idea it was to bucket mount the CFC, but mine turned out pretty good.

Also thanks to countless others for their contributions to the forum here. It has made for interesting reading during some slow days at work. I hope to one day soon drink the fruits of this adventure. I am just afraid it might not be a honey porter.

 

[a6ladd]

First off you are absolutely correct in taking a gravity reading. If you dont see any change, or if has been very slow to take off I would absolutely pitch another packet of your safeale in. Whenever I've used dry yeast in the past I never even bother to rehydrated it, just pitched it in dry, gave it a stir and made sure it was properly aerated. Yeast can be a little sluggish to take off and no visible signs of fermentation after 72 hours might not mean fermentation hasn't begun. I hope this helps!

Cheers

 

[airving]

Everything sounds fine - and although even the seal around a carboy bung can be not airtight, I thing that's more of a bucket lid issue. I would think you'd able to see some activity if you've got it in a glass carboy. Any bubbles or foam forming on the top? Having said that, those are not necessary to have fermentation.

The primary question I have based on what you mentioned above would be in relation to your rehydrating the yeast. How warm was the water? Too hot and you might have killed the yeast. It could have been damaged, alternatively, if it was exposed to high temperatures in shipping or in a car, etc.

Proof of yeast health would be obtained by making a starter. Making a starter for dry yeast is usually not recommended as the number of yeast cells and their energy reserves should be more than sufficient for fermenting beer. "Proofing yeast" is different and typically involves adding yeast and some sugar to warm water to look for activity.

Your plan B (sprinkling 2nd pack of yeast) is sound, but I'd question your OG. What was your target volume (5 gal?) and how much did you end up with? Did you do a boil of all of your wort or did you top off with water after boiling? If you topped off, it's very common to have not mixed thoroughly enough to get a good OG reading. Happens more than you might think, but the action of fermentation will get it mixed - no worries. Also, what temperature was the wort when you took the OG reading? Density is affected by temp and if not at ~room temp, you'd need to adjust and account for that (plenty of online resources for that).

Given that it's an extract batch, though, your total sugars are fixed and OG should be calculatable based on your volume (with some wiggle room due to not getting it all from the container). Could you post the extract ingredients and any sugars or grains if there were any and your total finished volume?

 

[A-Juice]

fermenter is a 6 gallon carboy with 1" blow off hose. No visible sign of fermentation yet. No bubbles in the starsan discharge bucket. Seal seems fairly tight.

I started with 6 gallons in the brew kettle. I finished with about 5.25 in the fermenter and a little left in the kettle. I was planning to boil off about a gallon and then top to 5.25ish but I never achieved a violent boil. More of a slow steady boil.

I didnt take a temp on the rehydration. Nuked the distilled water about a minute and it was not too hot to handle. Kind of like a cup of coffee. I would say temp of the hydrometer reading was about 75*F. I drank it after reading it. Mmmmmmm.

One pack of yeast came with the recipie kit from midwest. I bought a backup from the local shop. Neither were expired, but I used the one with the lease remaining life expectancy which was the locally purchased one. It was refrigerated in the store, but dont know any history prior. still have the second pack which came with the recipie kit. Both yeasts were the same kind.

So if I pitch the second pack of yeast, do I stir or not considering that it will have been in the fermenter 3 days? Also, it is difficult to stir a glass carboy fermenter. Any suggestions on this?

cut & pasteed ingredients from midwest:

The honey in this recipe ferments smoothly and crisply, creating a homebrew perfect for those just starting to appreciate darker beer. A great change of pace for dark beer fans. Our ingredients for this recipe include: 6 lbs. Dark liquid malt extract, 2 lbs. Minnesota Clover Honey, 8 oz. Carapils, 8 oz. Chocolate malt specialty grains, 1 oz. Styrian Goldings, 1 oz. Cascade pellet hops, yeast, priming sugar and a grain bag.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

If you pitch the other packet directly, you can mix it in pretty well by putting a solid stopper in the carboy, leaning it up onto it's edge on a soft (say, carpet, or a folded towel) surface, and then rocking it back and forth a bit.

Adding a bunch of yeast like that into wort, assuming that fermentation has really not started, oxygenation won't be a negative thing. Yeast love the stuff and vigorously fermenting yeast will eat all of the oxygen they can get their grubby little cells on.

 

[helibrewer]

Rehydration should be done with about 104F water...not Distilled or RO due to the high osmotic pressure difference. After about 15 minutes you can temper the yeast with a small amount of wort...you want to bring the yeast and wort to within about 10F of each other before pitching.

45 minutes is too long without providing some food for the yeast. Ideally it doesn't hurt to add GoFerm during rehydration (up to 1g/gal of wort).

 

[BrewinHooligan]

My last batch took about 68 hours to really get active. If your hydro reading shows any change, the yeast are most likely kicking into gear.

 

[A-Juice]

ok. took 72 hour hydro reading. No change at all.

repitched another packet of dry yeast by sprinkling.

Plugged carboy and shook it on edge violently.

smelled and tasted wort and noticed nothing unusual.

eagerly awaiting fermentation.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I didnt take a temp on the rehydration. Nuked the distilled water about a minute and it was not too hot to handle. Kind of like a cup of coffee.

Sounds like you killed your yeast with too hot of water. Good call on the repitch, it the wort wasn't soured when you tasted it, you'll be good to go.

 

[clemson51]

Unless I overlooked it did u notice the date stamped on the first dry yeast pack?

 

[FATC1TY]

Yeah could have been too hot of water..

When I used dry yeast, I never re hydrated, just sprinkled on top and left it. Didn't even mix it. Turned out fine.

If you pitched new yeast, I think you should be good to go!

 

[jestmaty]

I'm used to just pitching dry yeast straight out of the packet into my wort. For the last 30 or so all grain brews, I've only used dry yeast and again, just sprinkle over the top of the wort.

This past Sunday, 45 hours ago, I decided to use a better bottle for my primary instead of an ale pail for fermentation.

I had to pour my yeast pack (Fermentis Safale US-05) through the neck of the carboy/bb instead of a generous sprinkling all over my foamy wort.

I crossed my fingers and hoped that the yeast 'island' in the center of my bb would sink and start fermenting.

It did!!!

If you have no krausen, no airlock activity, and no visible signs of fermentation, then by all means pitch another $3 worth of yeast.... aerate, swirl, and watch the magic take off!

 

[A-Juice]

well I woke up this morning to bubbles in the blow off overflow bucket and krausen on top of the fermenter. All appears well with my beer after the re-pitch.

Thanks to all for the advice.