Fermentation help

Hi, I'm new to the Homebrew talk forum, but I've been homebrewing for almost eight years. I just had something happen in my last batch that I've never experience before and I need some help/advice.

On Black Friday I brewed two beers - an amber ale cloned on Anderson Valley Boont Amber, and a Scottish export ale. Normally I would cool off my wort with an immersion chiller, but due to weather I was confined to my garage. I cooled the worts down to a point where I could rack them off the plastic buckets and let them cool down to pitching temp. I then pitched two liters of starter yeast into both buckets after oxygenation. That was almost three days ago and I have no airlock activity. Sunday I pitched a fresh pitch of dry yeast into both worts and oxygenated again. This morning there was still nothing. Am I just totally screwed at this point, and what happened to my fermentation?

Sorry to go so long. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Matt

 

Buckets are famous for leaky lids. The co2 leaks instead of going thru the airlock.
Is there any visual sign of fermentation? With 2 litre starters you could already be done or close to it.. Check gravity

 

Did you take a gravity reading prior to pitching the second time? if so, was it different from your SG?

 

I did wonder if the lids might not be secured. When I popped the lids off to toss in the second pitch of yeast, I didn't see any sign of krausen in either bucket. I will take your advice and take a gravity sample tonight. I'll post a follow up later with my results. Thanks!

 

Even if it fermented super quick, like 24 hours, you would see krausen. What was the O.G. of your wort, also what type of yeast did you pitch at first then the second time?

 

He said he's been brewing for 8 years, I'd imagine he knows that sometimes the airlock doesn't bubble and that if he sees krausen he knows it's indeed fermenting That said, wow that is quite odd. That's a lot of yeast and to have zero sign of fermentation? What temp are the beers sitting at now? And I'd agree, take a gravity reading to see if anything changed.


Rev.

 

Thanks for all the responses! The amber ale was a 1.052 and the Scottish export a 1.056. I have them sitting in a back room at about 68F. The first pitch was a starter cultured up from S-04 yeast. I didn't check the wort temp first time I pitched and thought maybe I pitched too hot and killed off the yeast. The second pitch was straight dry yeast from the packet (which is maybe six weeks in my garage fridge) and I oxygenated it for about a minute Sunday, and a couple more times last night. I'm hoping to see some activity tonight, but is it getting to be too late to salvage at this point?

 

Very hard to say with the present information. But, I definitely wouldn't put any more yeast into it! Try the gravity reading and see where it's at. I've had many sleeper US05 fermentations (not S-04 I know) but usually there was at least a thin left over ring to show there was some krausen rise.


Rev.

 

Good news to report. I took samples of both beers last night. Both came out fully fermented! The scottish export read 1.012 and the Amber ale read 1.015. So a big sigh of relief there. Funny how the export came out lower, especially since I mashed at 158 as opposed to 154 for the amber, and the export had a higher OG. Probably the extra oxygenation. Quietest ferment I have ever seen using the S-04. But happy to report that we have ten gallons of good beer, and both samples were quite tasty. Thanks everyone for your help!

 

Dang! I love it when a plan comes together.

 

Awesome to hear! Like I said, with US-05 I've had insanely quiet "sleeper" fermentations, and judging by a number of other threads I've seen on here apparently many others have as well. Maybe it's just something with Fermentis yeast, who knows. But hey, you might want to consider cold crashing those beers for a while to settle out some of that excess yeast in there


Rev.

 

Happy to hear that everything is turning out ok, I would toss the buckets and go get new ones or other fermentation vessel. If kept well buckets can last a few years also depends on how they are stored and frequently used. Always remember if things don't look like they should first step is to take a reading.