I brewed a batch of Pumking Clone the other day, pitched an 1056 activator and it isn't fermenting after 48 hours. I think it might just be bad yeast (could have been pitched too warm, could have been too hot in the car they were sitting in for about a half hour, could have just been bad from the LHBS) but I was curious if there would be any other reason other than bad yeast that no fermentation has started yet? Could there be something in the beer that would cause it to not ferment?
Pumking Clone not fermenting
- Thread starter GarrettMD
- Start date
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Are you using a bucket? If so, take a look inside. I always suggest this because if the seal is not tight, your air-lock will not bubble, but fermentation will still be going on.
Give it a shot before you try something else, you may be surprised.
Give it a shot before you try something else, you may be surprised.
We have looked inside to make sure there wasn't a "cap" of pumpkin crud on the top keeping CO2 from coming out (another recent batch had that happen with honeydew melons and hops clogging the top which ultimately carbonated the beer) but that isn't the case, we also have a satellite fermenter that still reads the same as the OG. It just isn't fermenting.
In that case, you're likely going to have to re-pitch. There was probably not enough viable yeast to get that batch going.
Yeah, just pitched some S-04, no starter since this was a last minute change. Hopefully it will still be able to get up to the 9% though I don't know much about S-04 for high gravity purposes, if not, any ideas on how to fix that new problem?
mkling
Well-Known Member
S-04 works just fine in high gravity beers.
So did your activator pack just not swell? I usually use White Labs, but when if I'm not making a starter I still love Wyeast smackpacks because they swell & tell you the yeast is good. You were speculating that maybe it was bad yeast. Did you forget to smack it or did it not swell? Seems you might have known earlier if it was bad yeast.
So did your activator pack just not swell? I usually use White Labs, but when if I'm not making a starter I still love Wyeast smackpacks because they swell & tell you the yeast is good. You were speculating that maybe it was bad yeast. Did you forget to smack it or did it not swell? Seems you might have known earlier if it was bad yeast.
It was a Wyeast 1056 smack pack, and yeah, we smacked it. Got the ingredients including the yeast on the brew-day. Got back to the house, smacked it, broke the pack inside, and started brewing. 3 hours later we went to pitch it and it had swelled slightly, but not much. It was only my 2nd smack pack and the first hadn't swelled too much before I pitched it (that one worked fine) so I assumed it was nothing to worry about. Guess I was wrong.
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