Sos

[zrule]

So I decided to brew at the last minute and didn't make a starter. I purchased more than enough smack packs London Ale yeast according to the "Yeast" book. Brew day was great except for the fact that some friends came over and the mash time lengthened to around 2 hours. I have an automated system so the mash temp held steady. I did gain .03 gravity points. The problem is I brewed Sat and no activity until today and fermenting very slow. Should I get more yeast and make a starter and add it? With a stir plate I would only need one pack. HELP!

 

[nDub]

What was your recipe? OG?

Need more details.

Also it might take off today. I'd give it a little more time.

 

[kh54s10]

What was the OG, How much yeast did you pitch? Age of the yeast? Temperature of the wort? If you pitched on Saturday night and have fermentation on Monday morning that is within normal lag time especially if underpitched. I doubt you have a problem.

 

[pshankstar]

How do you know there is no activity? Have you taken a gravity sample? What are you fermenting in (glass carboy, plastic bucket, etc...)? If you are going on just the airlock that is not always an indicator of fermentation activity. If you are fermenting in a bucket, it could have a bad seal and the airlock would have minimal activity if any. Also are you controlling the fermentation temp? Right now I would say wait it out and have a beer. Take a sample in a couple of days and take a gravity reading. Cheers!

 

[zrule]

First to answer the questions. My recipe was mostly pale malt, 6 oz of c60, 2 0z of c80 and 4 oz of special b. My gravity into my conical was 1.054 and the temp was 65f. I pitched three smack packs with 73% viability for 217b cells. The grain bill indicated 188b cells. I aerated with o2 through a stone for 1.5 minutes. After a day of no activity I looked through the portal through the lid and so no foam. I increased the temp to 73 degrees hoping. I brewed this Saturday and on Monday after increasing the temp got some activity tho very little through the airlock. I can control temp of fermentation. Last night I checked sg and is at 1.020 but the taste....I cant describe it. BITTER, raisiny, harsh. The raisiny part comes from the special B but this is over the top raisiny and I only added 4 oz. This must have caught a bug but it is not sour. Will have to dump this.
So the two things that were done differently were: . The mash was extended to around 2 hours due to friends coming but the temperature of the mash remained constant. 2. I used yeast right out of the pack instead of my usual making a starter 48 hours prior to brewing.
Thanks to all the looked.

 

[Tarpon87]

don't dump it, hasn't even been a week, give it some time

 

[IslandLizard]

don't dump it, hasn't even been a week, give it some time

Exactly!

This is very green beer. It needs conditioning, yeast dropping, carbonation, it will improve drastically over the next week.

Since you don't know how that yeast has been stored, or incurred damage during transportation, there is no way to know her vitality. Cell count is not all, it's the viability of them that counts most.

As a rule of thumb, always make starters from liquid yeast unless you know her whereabouts, like from a previous starter, or harvested from a beer, stored in the fridge, etc.

For next time, look up making "vitality starters" at Brulosophy. If you don't have the luxury of time on your hands to make a fresh starter, this is a very good alternative.

For example, brewing my latest NEIPA I was pushed for time, so I took half the yeast from a large starter slurry I had stored, but it was over 2 months old. I ran it on my shaker* for 8 hours in 3 quarts of the actual beer wort, a krausen appeared twice. I then pitched the whole (vitality) starter without cold crashing. That 1.054 Session NEIPA was 60% done 18 hours later, at 68F! I was barely in time to add the first dry hops.

* A stir plate is fine too, or even better, use the vigorous "shaken, not stirred" method in a gallon jug or 2 gallon carboy.

 

[zrule]

Exactly!

This is very green beer. It needs conditioning, yeast dropping, carbonation, it will improve drastically over the next week.

Since you don't know how that yeast has been stored, or incurred damage during transportation, there is no way to know her vitality. Cell count is not all, it's the viability of them that counts most.

As a rule of thumb, always make starters from liquid yeast unless you know her whereabouts, like from a previous starter, or harvested from a beer, stored in the fridge, etc.

For next time, look up making "vitality starters" at Brulosophy. If you don't have the luxury of time on your hands to make a fresh starter, this is a very good alternative.

For example, brewing my latest NEIPA I was pushed for time, so I took half the yeast from a large starter slurry I had stored, but it was over 2 months old. I ran it on my shaker* for 8 hours in 3 quarts of the actual beer wort, a krausen appeared twice. I then pitched the whole (vitality) starter without cold crashing. That 1.054 Session NEIPA was 60% done 18 hours later, at 68F! I was barely in time to add the first dry hops.

* A stir plate is fine too, or even better, use the vigorous "shaken, not stirred" method in a gallon jug or 2 gallon carboy.

I did pick up the yeast a local LBHS store. Thanks for the info at brulosophy!