Slow yeast

[rilo0407]

Is dry yeast usually slower to start than liquid cultures? I pitched my dry packet from an ale kit yesterday @ 4:00. Temp was around 68. It has been 28 hrs and there are bubbles around the edges of the carboy and a few clusters of bubbles on top. Not a lot of signs of fermentation. This is my first brew in 15 yrs. Should I give it a few more days or take another temp and maybe try and warm it up?

 

[Revvy]

Is dry yeast usually slower to start than liquid cultures? I pitched my dry packet from an ale kit yesterday @ 4:00. Temp was around 68. It has been 28 hrs and there are bubbles around the edges of the carboy and a few clusters of bubbles on top. Not a lot of signs of fermentation. This is my first brew in 15 yrs. Should I give it a few more days or take another temp and maybe try and warm it up?

You don't need to do anything at all yet...and more than liekly nothing, since you are starting to see some bubbles forming, but remember, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/, and by visible signs we don't necessarily mean a bubbling airlock.

It IS a sticky at the top of the beginners forum for a reason, afterall.

 

[rilo0407]

Coming upon 48 hrs and no change. Thinking back, the bubbles I am seeing are probably left from sloshing a little when the carboy was moved right after being filled. I'm getting a little worried. If nothing has happened by 72 hours what should I do? BTW thanks for the link to the sticky in the beginners forum.

 

[Revvy]

Coming upon 48 hrs and no change. Thinking back, the bubbles I am seeing are probably left from sloshing a little when the carboy was moved right after being filled. I'm getting a little worried. If nothing has happened by 72 hours what should I do? BTW thanks for the link to the sticky in the beginners forum.

What you do is take a gravity reading, and if it hasn't decreased then you'd pitch more yeast....But the majority of the time, when you go to take the reading you find that fermentation has started.

 

[COLObrewer]

Revvy is correct of course, if you see nothing within 72 hrs, you may want to post what yeast it was and what the temperature is at now, etc. Sometimes an old yeast (that hasn't been taken care of) may not perform up to par in the beginning, my yeast friends always seem to survive, in spite of me.

Brew on my friend.

 

[rilo0407]

One more question guys....when I get ready to take another gravity, should I stir beforehand? There is about an inch of sediment in the bottom of the carboy.

 

[phishfood]

No. Leave the sediment alone, just sample the wort itself.

 

[rilo0407]

Well its been 54 hrs since I pitched yeast. Before I give my findings I want to give some particulars about my brew. It is a Brewers Best Weizenbier kit. The OG range is 1.047-1.051. When I pitched yeast the OG was 1.047. I just pulled some wort and the gravity is now 1.045. No signs of fermentation at all. The kit says the color should be deep gold, my wort is amber. The wort tasted ok. Good bitterness and it smells very malty as it should I guess. The temp when I pitched was 67-68. The temp after 54 hrs is 64-65. The air temp in the corner where I am keeping my carboy is around 66. Maybe the temp is too low? What should I do next?

 

[Revvy]

Is 54 hours over the 72 hours mentioned in the sticky????

 

[rilo0407]

Ok its been 72 hrs and still nothing. No visible signs of fermentation. What is the next step? The only thing that I can think of that may be wrong is temp. When I pitched yeast the temp was 67-68 and the temp probably dropped as when I got a sample for gravity the temp was 65. Is this brew salvagable?

 

[COLObrewer]

What's the gravity at now?

 

[rilo0407]

I didnt take a gravity at 72 hrs because I didnt want to take a chance on contaminating any further(if thats the problem). There are no bubbles or foam on top. There is about an inch of sediment in the bottom and no activity at all. If anyone has resolved a problem like this please help me out.

 

[Revvy]

I didnt take a gravity at 72 hrs because I didnt want to take a chance on contaminating any further(if thats the problem). There are no bubbles or foam on top. There is about an inch of sediment in the bottom and no activity at all. If anyone has resolved a problem like this please help me out.

Then how will you know? Sorry, but you're supposed to take gravity readings. You know, there is so much telling brewers, what not to do, do you actually think folks would be saying to use your hydrometer so much? Is it a vast conspiracy to ruin millions of new brewer's batches, so that they flee the hobby and give it a bad rap? Every book, every podcast, every posts talks about gravity of beer...how do you think they get them?

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....

Thinking about "doing anything" like repitching, or bottling, or racking, without first taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on?

Thinking about re-pitching without taking a hydro reading is tantamount to doing the same thing.

Your HYDROMETER is the only BEST indicator of fermentation activity. Nothing else is accurate or consistent...

Unless you take a gravity reading you don't know what's really going on, not by airlock bubbling or by krausen formation. Neither of those signs are effective, they don't tell you exactly where on the fermentation process you are.

The amount of krausen can vary for whatever reason, it can come quick and depart quickly or it can linger long after fermentation is complete, and it all be normal.

And airlocks sometimes bubble or they don't. And airlock is a valve, a vent to release excess co2...NOT a fermentation gauge. It's important to make that distinction, or you'll be panicking everytime a an airlock doesn't bubble, or stops bubbling.

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).

 

[rilo0407]

I understand the importance of specific gravity......I worked in a commercial distillery for several years and balling and gravity was a daily routine on the fermenting mash. I cultured yeast on a much larger scale and set countless fermenters. So I have seen a lot of fermenting on a larger scale. This is a thirty dollar beer kit.....Im trying to be cautious. Maybe Im worrying too much but something aint happening that should be. I know Im inexperienced in the art of beermaking. Fermentation is fermentation and I just want to get some ideas. This is only my second batch of beer. My first batch fermented quickly and vigorously for several days. I know there are many variables and reasons why maybe this batch is acting funny. I appreciate the input. Ok so if I take another gravity and it has not changed, what next??

 

[Revvy]

Ok so if I take another gravity and it has not changed, what next??

I already answered that for you yesterday or whenever, go back and read post # 4.

 

[indigi]

It's natural to be cautious and a little panickey about something you're new at. You see everyone talking about how great their ferments are compared to yours and you want to have something to blame. Sometimes we forget that just because we're not having huge yeast activity that nothing is necessarily wrong. Yeast is a living organism, and any number of tiny, even immeasurable variables can give you a different result on your 100th time than it did the 99 times previously but still produce great beer.

Patience is the hardest aspect of brewing to really get a handle on, in my opinion. Well.. that, and knowing when to take advice from people who've been doing it a lot longer than you. I still screw up both of those on a regular basis

 

[COLObrewer]

I didnt take a gravity at 72 hrs because I didnt want to take a chance on contaminating any further(if thats the problem). There are no bubbles or foam on top. There is about an inch of sediment in the bottom and no activity at all. If anyone has resolved a problem like this please help me out.

This is another case supporting RDWHAHB and the different degrees thereof.

To give you some perspective of the varying degrees of RDWHAHB, this is what I would do in your shoes, simply put, I would wait.

It doesn't matter how long, it doesn't matter what the gravity is. Personally I do this because that is how I learn, the first time I reached black belt RDWHAHB status was around May 2009 when I allowed an underpitched 13 gallon batch of brown ale to set until it was infected with wild yeast from my cellar (appx. 3 months of fiddling with, gravity taking, stirring/swirling, etc.) See here if you wish: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/13-gallons-unintentionally-wild-brown-can-i-use-133003/
We bottled this brown ale last week after it reached a point where the unique sour funkiness and peachness were well balanced with the original maltiness of the original brew (For those of you following the thread, don't worry I will post more details). I have no doubt this will be my best beer yet but to each his own, one man's best beer is another man's vomitous swill.

My point is this: It doesn't matter what you think your beer is doing, yeast has its own agenda, I have waited up to two weeks for yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to start working where the beer turned out fine. There are numerous factors that affect fermentation, some of them we have ZERO control over, such as: Moon phase, barometric pressure, solar flares, vibrations (natural or otherwise), other weather and mother nature related phenomena etc, etc, etc. So we are "lucky" when we personally do everything right AND the planets align correctly to allow us to partake in the fruits of our labor (assisted by yeast).

I realize that some do not have the room for such RDWHAHB experiments but if we (Mainly me) make premature assumptions regarding status of a process that I have little control over, I will never learn anything, that would be sad for me.

That is all, Keep on brewing my friend

 

[rilo0407]

Well four days after I pitched yeast.....I finally have fermentation!! I appreciate the input and suggestions. Not sure if this solved the problem, but here is what I did......I raised the temp about 5 degrees. The ambient temp where I had the carboy was 66 and the temp of the wort was around 64. I moved the fermenter to an area where the ambient temp was 70 and wrapped a small electric blanket around it for a little while. The wort temp came up to 69. Not sure if temp was the problem but at least its fermenting.

 

[Revvy]

And you know it's fermenting because you took a gravity reading......right?

If you say "Because your airlock is bubbling" I'm going to challenge you to prove to me that it isn't bubbling JUST because you lifted your ferementer up and moved it, thereby disturbing any co2 in there and causing it to bubble.....AND I'm gonna slap you aside the head for not listenning to us.

 

[rilo0407]

The gravity as of about an hour ago was 1.044. The OG was 1.048.......this is 5 full days after pitching yeast.....at least its doing something. Got some nice kraussen and lots of CO2.