3 liter wort fermenting in a 5 liter bucket, lag time question..

Hi guys,
I have done an all grain blonde ale batch that turned out to be less than I thought. The wort is approximately 3 liters and I had put it into a 5 liter fermenter bucket. It has now been 36 hours and no bubbling or what so ever can be seen in the airlock. Does this mean that my yeast is dead or it takes more time for the co2 to build up pressure to be able to make bubbles in the airlock?
Any help is appreciated.

 

What kind of yeast did you use?

 

I make 3 gallons in 6 gallon buckets exclusively. You have to realize the dead space in the fermentor is larger than normal, therefore it will take a little longer for all that CO2 to fill that space and start making that airlock tick (which should not be your gauge for fermentation anyways).

Leave it alone...or if you must, open up your bucket and take a peek, i'll bet you've got a nice krausen starting...

 

Need more details. Starter, aeration method, pitching rate, etc.

 

While this ^ would help, i'm willing to bet fermentation has started and all is well. It's only been 36hrs plus he's got some decent head space in his fermentor

 

I just used a 10 gram packet of ale yeast from a kit. I did not use a starter at all. Yes, my incline on the issue is that the space caused the delay. Just making sure if there is any other possibility.
And do you guys have any methods to understand whether the fermentation has started or not, other than checking the airlock? Krausen is one I know that but any other things to look for?

 

Other than the old stand by of RDWHAHB, the only othe way to really guage whether fermentation is taking place is gravity readings...but you're still way too early to be that worried. Just give it a little time, the first couple times i made 3 gallon batches it freaked me out until i realized the head space was the issue.

While airlock bubbles aren't a concrete measure, it's still comforting to wake up afte brew day/night and see that sucker popping away.

 

You don't use a starter with dry yeast anyway, so that's not the problem. However, you should rehydrate it in plain, room temperature water rather than just sprinkling it directly in.

If you sprinkled your dry yeast directly into your wort, then I would suspect it's simply taking a while to get going because you underpitched. In the future, if you're going to sprinkle the dry yeast directly in, then use 2 packets to account for the reduced cell viability associated with the lack of rehydration.

The proper way to guage fermentation progress is by taking gravity readings with a hydrometer.

 

The OP was doing a less than gallon batch and he used a full 10g packet (the usual amount for a 5-gallon batch).

Underpitching is *not* an issue here.

 

Whoops, woozy's right, I somehow missed that part. My apologies, ignore my pitching rate comments.

 

If I put the bucket lids on tight enough to get airlock bubbling I can't get them off again without making a mess. So mine are always a little loose. I'm conscious about not disturbing the CO2 blanket too much, but I've never had a problem. If you're really that worried peek through the stopper hole to look for krausen.

 

Your bucket lid might not be airtight, and you wouldn't see any bubbles. I had the same issue two days ago, I didn't realize the lid I put on my fermenter wasn't the correct one.I knew I had fermentation happening, but no bubbles. Carefully remove the airlock, and look for foam or bubbles, if you see any action, leave it alone for a couple of weeks.