w34/70 Stalled? Day 4 - No activity

[redraider77]

Finally got my chest freezer converted to be a fermentation chamber and decided to try and brew a schwarzbier. Bought two packets of Saflager w34/70 and rehydrated. Put wort in the chamber and started to cool it down to 50 degF. Let the yeast rehydrate at room temperature until the wort was at 50 degF. Put the rehydrated yeast in the chamber for about 30 minutes to let it cool down as well. Pitched the yeast. Not sure what the exact temperature of the yeast was when I pitched but thought 30 minutes was enough time to get the yeast close to the wort temperature. That was 9/24, Thursday night and this is Monday, 9/28 so its been four days and there is no airlock activity at all. I know the airlock doesn't tell you if it is fermenting or not but I would have expected something. Not sure what to do at this point. Should I give it a gentle stir, repitch, take a gravity reading, raise the temperature or what. I ferment in buckets so I can't see what's exactly going on inside. I think the yeast was good because it foamed like crazy when I rehydrated. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[NTexBrewer]

There is a good chance that your bucket was not sealed completely and the CO2 was escaping bypassing the airlock. The only way you will know if you have fermentation is to take a gravity reading. It would not hurt to pull a sample to check. I'm guessing that after 4 days you are close to your final gravity and the start of your diacytle rest.

 

[djonesax]

+1 to NTexBrewer

This happened to me a few months ago when my lid wasn't on tight. I reseated the lid and it was bubbling right away. It wont hurt to take a peak inside the fermenter. Take the lid off and see if you see any krausen, and if so just put the lid back on and wait until you would have scheduled your next gravity reading.

David

 

[Gavin C]

On rehydrating yeast.

Best no to leave it too long before you pitch once you've started the process. Fermentis suggests a timeline of 45-60 minutes for this yeast in their instructions.

May not be hugely important and the issue may be just due to a bad seal.

I'd open her up and take a look. If there are no visible signs of fermentation/krausen formation get some new yeast in there pronto. At 4 days things should be chugging along nicely with this pitch rate.

how warm was the water used to rehydrate?

One other thing to add: I wouldn't put the small jar of rehydrated yeast into the chamber. The chamber presumably is reading the wort/beer temperature and will the compressor running to cool it. The ambient at this time is likely a lot lower than the beer wort temperature bring the yeast temperature much lower than desired.

I rehydrate based on the instructions I linked.

 

[redraider77]

I did take the lid off and take a look last night. There was a layer of foam and a ring and I could see a small amount of bubble activity. I don't know for sure but maybe this was krausen but it looked a lot like the foam I had after I aerated the wort. I poured back and forth between another bucket which leaves the wort pretty foamy. I'll think I'll take a gravity reading when I get home tonight to see if there is any progress. The OG was 1.050.

 

[Gavin C]

I did take the lid off and take a look last night. There was a layer of foam and a ring and I could see a small amount of bubble activity. I don't know for sure but maybe this was krausen but it looked a lot like the foam I had after I aerated the wort. I poured back and forth between another bucket which leaves the wort pretty foamy. I'll think I'll take a gravity reading when I get home tonight to see if there is any progress. The OG was 1.050.

The foam from aeration/oxygenation rapidly dissipates leaving the wort surface still and shiny. Sounds like somethings fermenting

 

[redraider77]

Here is the status. Still no airlock activity. Took of the lid and checked temperature and it was right at 50 degrees. My Johnson controller is set at 52. Pulled a sample to check gravity and it is only a couple of points lower. OG was 1.050 and looks like it is only around 1.046 now. With a hydrometer its difficult to tell a big difference. I don't know what it should be after 4 days but it doesn't look good. Gave it a gentle swirl with a paddle and put the lid and airlock back on. Bumped the temp on the controller to 53 degrees. If it doesn't show any activity tomorrow I'm thinking I may repitch if I can even find any lager yeast. My LHBS didn't have it when I checked last week. Is there anything else I can do or I'm I making it worse. Thanks.

 

[Gavin C]

Pitch more yeast

I'd gamble on s-05 in the low 60's to get a mocktoberfest.

Sounds like the yeast never got started.

 

[redraider77]

Thankfully this morning the airlock burping about once every 4 or 5 seconds.

 

[andrewf1985]

Sounds like you were fermenting right at the bottom of the temp range for the yeast so they were just doing things real slow. A degree or 2 up would help get the yeast moving. If your after a clean profile, jusy leave the beer a bit longer in primary for the yeasties to clean things up. A few degrees shouldnt make a HUGE difference

 

[redraider77]

Sounds like you were fermenting right at the bottom of the temp range for the yeast so they were just doing things real slow. A degree or 2 up would help get the yeast moving. If your after a clean profile, jusy leave the beer a bit longer in primary for the yeasties to clean things up. A few degrees shouldnt make a HUGE difference

Bumped up temperature to 53 which is at the low end of the optimum range. I had read that others liked to ferment this yeast below that like around 48-49 but I think it extending the time in the primary is a great idea.