Tell me about your ferment with no airlock activity...

[TxBigHops]

First off, yes I know, airlock activity is not the be all, end all sign of fermentation. But this one is pretty odd, and had some unusual occurrences, so looking for some thoughts. Beer is a session IPA. OG of 1.048. I wanted it to finish high for a little more body so I was planning to mash at 156. Over shot a bit and ended up at more like 158. The yeast is a lower attenuating one, Wyeast Denny's Favorite 50. And one more odd thing - when I took the smack pack out of the fridge, it was already partly swollen. Smacked it, and by the time I was ready to pitch it had blown up to capacity, so I figure no problem. Cut it and no unusual smell, so good to go.

I pitched at about 68 degrees at about 6PM Sunday. Put my BMB in a water cooled temp controlled cooler and brought it down to 64. Normally my ferments start very quickly, but this was my first time with this yeast. Monday morning I was a little surprised that there was no activity yet and the surface of the wort was pristine. Headed off to work with only the slightest concern.

Arrived home at 7PM Monday and was very happy to see bubbles in the airlock, and an inch or so of krausen. Should be end of story, right? Went to check on it again around 11PM before bed and... no airlock activity. Odd, but still not really worried. Went to bed.

Tuesday morning... no airlock activity. Tuesday evening (tonight)... no airlock activity. Still a nice layer of krausen, and if I push down on the lid, I get bubbles in the airlock, so not like it developed a crack or leak somewhere. lid is screwed down tight. So here are my thoughts:

Is is possible that 6 - 12 hours of moderately vigorous fermentation on Monday is all I'm going to get?

Did my 158 degree mash not extract near enough fermentable sugars?

Was there a problem with the yeast? Package date was early January.

Am I fermenting too cool? currently about 65.

As long as there is krausen, I'm not going to worry and will wait until it goes down to take my first gravity reading. Otherwise, anything else I should do? Thanks.

 

[JunkCatsOnThePorch]

No worries, all is well. Im guessing you are using a standard bucket and lid? Mine start to leak after a while around the rim somewhere. It's nothing I really worry about, and have made great beers with leaky buckets. I recently started buying 7.9 Gallon wine buckets that have the rubber gasket seal, just to ease my mind a bit.

As for the 158 mash, I too have done this. ESB finished at .02 Not to happy with it. But kegged it and drank it sweet anyway. I wont make that mistake again. I read somewhere on here about someone making another yeast starter to bring it down a bit. I didn't bother and just brewed it correctly the next time.

Another thought on your bucket. I noticed the edge of my leaky lid was bent just a bit (presumably from where I took it off the last batch). I bent it back, but because I am now using wine buckets, have not tested it out to see if that was the culprit.

 

[TxBigHops]

No worries, all is well. Im guessing you are using a standard bucket and lid? Mine start to leak after a while around the rim somewhere. It's nothing I really worry about, and have made great beers with leaky buckets. I recently started buying 7.9 Gallon wine buckets that have the rubber gasket seal, just to ease my mind a bit.

As for the 158 mash, I too have done this. ESB finished at .02 Not to happy with it. But kegged it and drank it sweet anyway. I wont make that mistake again. I read somewhere on here about someone making another yeast starter to bring it down a bit. I didn't bother and just brewed it correctly the next time.

Another thought on your bucket. I noticed the edge of my leaky lid was bent just a bit (presumably from where I took it off the last batch). I bent it back, but because I am now using wine buckets, have not tested it out to see if that was the culprit.

No, not a bucket. BMB = Big Mouth Bubbler. Pretty confident that I do not have a leak. I have a ferment that is not producing much (any?) gas.

 

[Braufessor]

If there is krausen...... that is the #1 thing I think. I would maybe let it free rise temperature up to 68-70 and then again up to 70-72 a couple days later. That might keep it going in the right direction.
I don't think 158 would make that huge of a difference. I have used that temp. before and still got 1.012-1.014 range.

 

[TxBigHops]

If there is krausen...... that is the #1 thing I think. I would maybe let it free rise temperature up to 68-70 and then again up to 70-72 a couple days later. That might keep it going in the right direction.
I don't think 158 would make that huge of a difference. I have used that temp. before and still got 1.012-1.014 range.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe raise temps some. Thanks.

 

[brewski09]

Take a gravity reading. Maybe it stalled or maybe it's not used to the low temp and needs to come up (you said this is your first time with the yeast). How full is the BMB? I've done 2.5gal batches in 6gal buckets and gotten a decent amount of gas blowing off but far less than a 5 gal batch in the same size bucket.

My hunch is that the yeast didn't activate as much as it normally would have d/t the partial activation (puffy packet) and you pitched some more dormant yeast.

Again, it's time to take a gravity reading. You may not have anything to be concerned about.

 

[TxBigHops]

Take a gravity reading. Maybe it stalled or maybe it's not used to the low temp and needs to come up (you said this is your first time with the yeast). How full is the BMB? I've done 2.5gal batches in 6gal buckets and gotten a decent amount of gas blowing off but far less than a 5 gal batch in the same size bucket.

My hunch is that the yeast didn't activate as much as it normally would have d/t the partial activation (puffy packet) and you pitched some more dormant yeast.

Again, it's time to take a gravity reading. You may not have anything to be concerned about.

Thanks. 5.5 gal in the BMB. Taking the wife to the theater tonight, so probably won't want to take a gravity reading when I get home. Gonna let temp rise, then maybe take a reading tomorrow night. May swing by the LHBS and grab a pack of S-04 just in case I need a re-pitch.

 

[JunkCatsOnThePorch]

No, not a bucket. BMB = Big Mouth Bubbler.

Ahh please forgive me. I do love browsing this place while having a beer. Still new to the internet fourm acronyms.

 

[Minky]

The plastic Big Mouths are notorious for lids that don't seem to seal well. Airlock activity seems pretty normal at first, but after awhile the CO2 seems to exit around the lid.

 

[brewski09]

I may do a starter of s-04 or whatever you get so the yeast is super active to have a better luck ensuring completion of fermentation

 

[Moebbels]

I made a weizen with a 100% wheat malt last weekend. After pitching yeast in the evening i set the STC-1000 to keep it at 24c (75F). The next morning when I checked there was no airlock activity. Same thing the next day and I started worrying, as I had pitched some older yeast that I had no prios experience of (Fermentum Mobile FM41) that I had grown on a stirplate.

So I went and took a gravity sample and found that the beer was almost at FG. I guess it had gone through most of the fermentation during the first night, in about 8 hours. This was fermented in a food grade plastic canister that you can't see throughso I did not know if there is a krausen present.

 

[TxBigHops]

The plastic Big Mouths are notorious for lids that don't seem to seal well. Airlock activity seems pretty normal at first, but after awhile the CO2 seems to exit around the lid.

Thanks for contributing. I have had zero issues with sealing before this brew. But you may be right. Planning to take a gravity reading tonight, so I may disassemble and reassemble the entire lid, and replace my airlock just to see.

 

[slym2none]

*takes a drink*

 

[Minky]

Thanks for contributing. I have had zero issues with sealing before this brew. But you may be right. Planning to take a gravity reading tonight, so I may disassemble and reassemble the entire lid, and replace my airlock just to see.

Yeah, I have two of them that leak like that, but I haven't let it bother me too much. There is a new lid available that's supposed to be a fix, but I guess there are problems with it, also. Here are a couple of threads:

New lid:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=555388

A home made gasket:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=22012.0

 

[TxBigHops]

Yeah, I have two of them that leak like that, but I haven't let it bother me too much. There is a new lid available that's supposed to be a fix, but I guess there are problems with it, also. Here are a couple of threads:

New lid:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=555388

A home made gasket:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=22012.0

Thanks for the suggestions. I took a 5 day gravity reading last night, and down to 1.014, so no fermentation problems.