Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs.

Don't worry if your brew takes up to 3 days to show signs fermenting.
Especially if you used liquid yeast and didn't make a big starter and oxygenate.
It is also worth noting that no bubbles in the air lock does not mean it isn't fermenting.

If at 3 days nothing seems to of happened then take a gravity reading to make sure you haven't missed the fermentation.
It is preferable to have a brew start fermenting as soon as possible
If you follow correct and advised procedures then I say most brews see activity in 6 to 18 hours. If this doesn't happen then it doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. You may just not be seeing it or it's taking it's time.

It is quite common for new brewers to get worried after 24 hours to 48 hours.
They get told to wait and then realise that the advice was correct.

First brew, and worried - Home Brew Forums

 

Great sticky, because it is a popular question.

I will say though, let's not advocate that thinking fermentation starting in more than 12 hours is a good thing. It isn't. Any longer than 12 hours and you are looking for trouble--infections, sub-par beer and quite frankly it is a bad brewing practice.

Let's stress this thread on doing starters, aerating and oxygenating, and fundamental brewing practices!

 

On the other hand, contrary to popular belief, it's bad to rocket your fermentation off in 1-2 hours, either. There's a sweet spot that you should aim for in your cell count/pitching rate.

 

Its been about 18 hours since I've pitched my first wort and still no bubbles. I realize that no bubbles doesn't necessarily mean no fermentation, and while I'm nervous, I'm not worried because I have faith in what you guys say. My question is whether an infection would prevent the yeast from working at all. because from what I've read, most infected beers at least make it to fermentation.

It took maybe 30 minutes for my wort to cool to about 80 degrees and it was uncovered and I poured it back and forth between my pot and my primary bucket a few times to try to get it to cool quicker. I didn't even realize I had to aerate the beer so I hope that accomplished it.

Also, I just put the dry yeast right on top of the beer and stirred it for abou 10 seconds. I did the Brewer's Best robust porter if yall need better reference.

The bathroom that I have my primary in smells like new plastic but kinda gassy. would that be a new bucket? or could that be fermentation?

All you guys rock by the way.

Evan

 

What's the disadvantage here? Just curious because ever since I started pitching starters and aerating well, mine do rocket off in a couple hours.

 

According to Palmer, taking off too quickly doesn't allow the yeast to take stock of what's expected of them. Kind of like they need to time to assess the situation before getting to work. He uses much more accurate wording though

 

I have been using dry yeast the last 5 brews and I am anywhere between 12-15 hours each time. I am happy with that.

 

Over three days (around 85 hrs) since i set the brew to ferment and still no bubbling, keep in mind I'm using a Mr.Beer that was stored in a closet by my brother for the last year. I will let it go the full 2 weeks anyway and hope for the best because i don't have a new brew to start and my next brew will be 5 gallons in a carboy.

 

Well, if there is too much yeast, they will not reproduce correctly, and you'll end up with dying yeast cells.

Also, lots of beer styles are yeast-dependent for their flavours: namely belgians, wits, hefes. If there is too much yeast, they are not going to be as stressed as a true fermentation, and many of these flavour profiles will be lost. The stress on the yeast is what contributes to these flavours, and you can actually change the profile by changing the stress level. You even want to purposefully "underpitch" styles like saison because you want as much yeast character as possible.

 

I brewed a partial mash dunkelweisen yesterday about 4:00 p.m. This was my first full boil as I just got my wort chiller ( worked greast ) I checked it this morning about 3:30 a.m. noticed my room temp was about 62 degrees and no activity turned up my space heater and went to work. When I got home at 3:00p.m. still no activity room was 68 degrees. Noticed a slight foam on top of the wort . ( when I siphoned the wort into my firmenter pail I kept filling a sanitised milk jug half full and shoock the hell out of it) also mixed well when pitching yeast(white labs hefenweizen) so I think my areation was o.k. I think I'm learning the importance of making a starter now! I will check it again this evening and take a gravity reading. If I need to repitch I will have to get more yeast tomorrow. How do I go about repitching ? Do I need to areate it again and what is the best methodeto areate 5 gallons in a pail ?

 

Without a starter it could very easily take 72 hours for signs of fermentation to appear.

 

I think the yeast may have gone asleep in you 63 temp. If u have little to no activity after 48hrs I would suggest repitching some dry yeast. Just sprinkle on top. I very rarely get activity in less than 24 hrs. Give the yeast some time. What was the OG? A recipe is always helpful. I would expect activity now that u are back up to 68 degrees..Keep the temp constant at 68. The foam on top at 24 hrs sounds like the start of fermentation to me.

Jay

 

You should take a hydrometer reading, it will tell you whether any fermentation has occured.

 

This is my recipe , my home brew store said it looked great and was surprised I came up with it on my own as it is only my 4th brew and my first recipe I came up with.
Mark's dunkelweizen:
Brew Type: Partial Mash Date: 12/24/2007
Style: Dunkelweizen Brewer: Mark Gable
Batch Size: 5.25 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 6.71 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
Actual Efficiency: 71.68 %
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 36.01 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 24.01 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 18.01 %
0.75 lb Wheat Malt, Dark (9.0 SRM) Grain 9.00 %
0.50 lb Caramel Wheat Malt (46.0 SRM) Grain 6.00 %
0.33 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 3.96 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.00 %
0.75 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (45 min) Hops 14.2 IBU
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (5 min) Hops 0.8 IBU
0.25 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.0 IBU
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.052 SG (1.044-1.056 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG

 

update: It is now 6:22 p.m. and I am now seeing bubbles in my air lock. I do think I need to learn how to do yeast starters as I have never done any yet but have had good results so far. Do I need a stir plate or just buy a flask and stopper and some dme?

 

You can make a decent starter with with a minimum of equipment. A large glass jar or 1/2 gallon growler from the LHBS, DME, and a stopper and airlock to fit.

Starters remove alot of worry, because it allows you to check your yeast viability and the fermentation starts alot faster. I know we are supposed to RDWHAHB, but many of us worry about fermentation anyway whether we admit it or not.

 

+1 on making starters. Starters are mandatory with White Labs, 'cause their "pitchable vials", well, ain't. They may have more active cells per mL than other types of yeast, but there's just not enough in those little vials to initiate a rapid and vigorous primary. Trust me; been there. The only time I pitch from the WL vial is if I'm pitching to a small batch in one of my 2 gallon carboys.

That's why I don't use them. I like to keep my brewing as simple as possible, and fiddling about with starters wastes time I could be using to do something else.

Good yeast though! I just wish they'd give you more of it.

Cheers,

Bob

EDIT: Even though I did a bit of bitching above, starters aren't all that bad, if that's what you need to do in order to use the yeast you want. Raising enough slurry to pitch, even for a five-gallon batch, takes some time and effort, that's all. Read the section on yeast in Daniels, Designing Great Beers.

 

I have been making wine for awhile but I started my first brew thursday night. It's a brewer's best Irish Stout. Everything went fine except I just couldn't cool it! An hour after I took it off of the burner it was aprox 80-85 degrees instead of 70. By this time it was 3am so I took the gravity reading (1.50 as predicted) , tossed the yeast and went to bed. The instructions say activity should begin in 24 hours. The lid is on tight and it is now stored at a constant 70 degrees like the instructions say. It has been 30 hours and although I see the water is a little uneven like there is pressure, there haven't been any bubbles. Was the wort too hot? Something else? Am I just being impatient?

 

Give it a little more time.

 

Hot enough to kill your yeast? no

I have had times where the lid seal wasn't all that tight and never saw the air lock bubble once...course, fermentation was happening all along. I would give it a little more time and if you don't see any signs or a loose lid type thing or your yeast stranded on the side of the bucket, take a reading...no reduction in gravity, pitch a pack of something like S04 or Windsor.

 

Thank you both. I have noticed with any wine and this beer kit the difference between the kit instructions to put the dry yeast in, and the instructions on the yeast packet which says to rehydrate the yeast. Some wine yeasts call for the water to be around 100 degrees to rehydrate so I guess I should not have been too worried. Thanks for giving me a little more confidence, I hope it starts soon.

 

beer kit instructions aren't always the best. I typically rehydrate all my yeast. As long as its done sanitary and at the right temp, it can only help.

 

I had a similar problem with my first batch. Sometimes with extract kits if you use the yeast that was provided, (taped to the top of the can) its not always the best or the freshest. After 24 hours the airlock wasn't bubbling and I took a look inside my plastic carboy and noticed there was no krausen on top of the wort. I ended up going to my homebrew store and picking up another pack of yeast that they keep properly refrigerated. make sure you rehydrate it in warm water for about 10 mins then pitch it. That ended up fixing my problem right up and fermentation started about 10-12 hours after.

I was doing an irish stout too btw heh

Best of luck.

 

+1 on both points malkore made.
Kit instructions are usually very generic and vague. Mostly geared to making beer quickly rather than good.
Rehydrating your yeast can speed things up a lot. It also helps make more and healthier yeast.

 

just an opposing viewpoint on the white labs criticism. i brewed the belgian strong ale from northern brewer the other day. the wyeast smack pack did not activate. i ran to my local homebrew store and picked up the white labs vial of pitchable yeast and bang, fermentation started 10 hours after i re-aerated my wort and pitched the yeast.

thought i should share my positive experience with the first and only time i used white labs.

 

ps-

anyone ever used the trub as their yeast starter for their next batch. i have heard of much success (going light to darker) with this process. have not tried it but think i might in the future.

i hear adding your wort and water to an emptied (minus trub) fermenter will cause a rapid fermentation. any thoughts?

 

my first post...this forum is great.

if yeast are re-pitched, do you stir the yeast into the wort (just like the first pitch)?

or do you just sprinkle the yeast on top of the wort?

i'm worried i may have not aerated the wort enough for my yeast, but then again i don't want to induce an infection.

thanks!

 

You should be able to sprinkle over the top. There should be enough CO2 at the top of a de-oxygenated wort to start.

 

i have tons of bubbles now.

took about 30 hours.

temp in the room varies between 65 and 68.

 

I pitched a slap pack of american ale wyeast 23 hours ago into my batch of boston ale and there is no activity, I knew liquid yeast had a long lag time, but is this long normal. My thermometer in the room reads about 71 degrees

 

Sometimes after 3 days I start to worry, then the airlock bubbles...
Did you aerate the wort?

 

When I pitched I did like it said on "how to brew" I put the lid on and shook the wort around, could it help to do it again?

 

yep, just had a beer start today after 28 hours after pitching.. no worries, give it time!

 

That is why I always make a starter when I use a liquid yeast culture.

Also as was pointed out areation of the wort is more critical when using liquid yeast. As you are not boiling the total amount and are topping your wort up with cold water, that cold water will already have disolved oxygen in it. Splashing the wort will get you enough O2 to work the wort.

Don't areate your wort now that it has been in your fermenter for a while.

 

Dude, there's a sticky right above this thread which addresses this. Read it.

 

in a related question - is it bad for fermentation to take a long time? i have a pale ale that took a bit to get going (started after 24 hrs) but it has been bubbling for seven days now. i took a reading yesterday and it was only at 1.030 (started at 1.048). i was planning on transferring to secondary after 7-10 days to dry hop but its not anywhere near ready. is there any problems that can arise with it taking so long? by the way i used wyeast 1056. thanks.

 

thanks.

i have it at 68 and its been chugging along but i was worried that i would get some bad flavors or risk infection if the process was drawn out.

 

I started a Pale Ale on saturday night and pitched the yeast which was wet yeast. the sg was 1.055. after maybe 24 hours the airlock is not bubbling. I was thinking about re pitching the yeast. should I? or what should i do?

 

RDWHAHB!
The only thing you can do is wait. Don't pitch more yeast, just relax and let the yeast do its thing. Lag times can be as long as 3 days, try not to worry about it. Warming the fermenter up might get the yeast going and speed up the process a little.