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a little over 48 hours in...

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Bfelt

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Dec 18, 2009
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Location
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so i pitched my yeast a little over 48 hours ago and so far there are no visible signs of fermentation and my hydrometer reading has not changed from the OG.

at 24 and 48 hours i opened it up and gave it a stir to make sure the yeast were all mixed in, but i still see no changed.

do i toss this batch or can i buy more yeast and re pitch?
i am thinking it was just a bad vial of yeast because i did not do anything out of the ordinary that i can think of.
 
Patience is a virtue in brewing. Don't mess with it for at least 4 days. As long as it's sealed, no harm will come of it. If it's still not fermenting after 4 days, you might have pitched dead yeast, or there could be something else wrong. Make sure you're storing within your desired temp range and wait it out.

No more opening and stirring. It won't help anything. The more you mess with it, the more chance you have at introducing an infection.

I always keep some dry yeast around just in case, but I've never had to use it.

Some questions to diagnose whether you killed or pitched bad yeast:

What was the temp of the wort when you pitched?
What was the expiration date on the yeast?
What was the type of yeast?
Did you make a starter?
How did you aerate the wort?
 
i am sensing a wave of experienced people about to comment and tell you to be more patient.

btw, when this happens to me, it's always because my carboy cap/air lock aren't sealed.
 
thank you! i think i am going to let it sit for a little while then.
in response to your questions:
-the wort was about 75-80 degrees
-i forget what the expiration date was i had bought the vial five days earlier so i expected it to be good, but i threw away the vial already and cant find it in the trash.
-it was the white labs california ale v 051
-no i didnt make a starter, but i let it sit out for about 5 hours to warm up prior to pitching.
-i aerated with an aeration stone and bottle of oxygen
 
thank you! i think i am going to let it sit for a little while then.
in response to your questions:
-the wort was about 75-80 degrees
-i forget what the expiration date was i had bought the vial five days earlier so i expected it to be good, but i threw away the vial already and cant find it in the trash.
-it was the white labs california ale v 051
-no i didnt make a starter, but i let it sit out for about 5 hours to warm up prior to pitching.
-i aerated with an aeration stone and bottle of oxygen

Sounds like you did everything right. Only other thing that could have happened was it getting to hot during shipping, if it were internet ordered...

What's the current temp of the place where it's stored?
 
that is actually what i was thinking. i got it in a kit from austin homebrew and i live in california so the shipping was pretty long and even when it was on a cold pack, the yeast came out of the package room temp. so here the temp was about 70-75 while it was in transit and then i put it in the refrigerator right away when i got it.
 
It's a concern, but it takes a lot to kill ALL of the yeast.

Next time, order a pound of extra light DME and keep that in the cupboard. Make starters to verify the viability of the yeast, and always try to keep some dry yeast on hand, it's cheap and will save the aggravation of waiting for another delivery if your yeast is actually dead...

Where in Cali? I was born and raised in HB and will be back to visit family in early July. Looking forward to drinking at Alcatraz in Orange and finding some Pliny to bring home and share with the east coast pliny starved population...
 
yea i hadn't had any problems ordering from them before, but we will see.
i need to start making starters, but this batch is only like my 7th or 8th? so i have not really gone into depth with the whole brewing process yet. the only things i have upgraded since i started are moving to full boils and the oxygenation kit.
i live just right on the peninsula san carlos, ca to be exact. have fun sharing the pliny love with them!
 
I'd say consider buying from dry yeast as a backup and pitching if it doesn't start to ferment in a day or two.

It's over 100 some days here in Texas, so it's definitely possible your yeasts got cooked sitting in a warehouse waiting to be shipped.
 
Do NOT toss the batch. You might want to get some additional yeast, just in case.

Don't you have a LHBS? Yeast is one of the greatest local buys. Totally worth the extra cost. Yeast and Grain are the two things I always buy at the LHBS. Yeast is best kept cool and grain is so expensive to ship.
 
-it was the white labs california ale v 051
-no i didnt make a starter, but i let it sit out for about 5 hours to warm up prior to pitching.

WLP051 is known for being a bit of a slow fermenting strain. Without a starter, it may just take a while to get going.

+1 on the idea of obtaining liquid yeast from your LHBS if that option is convenient for you. I like some of the AHS kits, but when I order in the summer months, I prefer to get yeast locally for the piece of mind.
 
First RELAX!!!!! You have new brewer's anxiety, nothing more. Your beer is fine.

#1 https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/, and by visible signs we don't necessarily mean a bubbling airlock.

It IS a sticky at the top of the beginners forum for a reason, afterall. ;)

As already stated in the linked sticky, Fermentation often can take up to three days to start. And by visible signs they do NOT mean airlock bubbling.

I don't see anything by what you are saying to indicate that your fermentation actually wasn't. All I see is that your airlock wasn't bubbling, and that you didn't take a gravity reading before panicking and and starting this thread.

BUT without a gravity reading all you are telling me is that your airlock wasn't bubbling....That is NOT the same thing as a fermentation happening.

Whether it's in a conical, a bucket, or a carboy, it's the same thing. An airlock is a VENT, a VALVE to release excess co2, nothing more.

If it's not bubbling it just means that there no excess co2 to be vented out.

In your case, more than likely hadn't even started yet, or that it was working fine, and just didn't need to vent any co2 yet.

A beer may ferment perfectly fine without a single blip in the airlock.

That's why you need to take a gravity reading to know how your fermentation is going, NOT go by airlocks. The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It's the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on?
 
But most importantly , quit opening your bucket, and quit stirring it. After the first 24 hours, there is some fermentation happening, and unless you want to make 5 gallons of liquid cardboard, then stirring is a bad idea. It starts to oxydize the beer.

Yeasts just don't "NOT WORK" these days. That's an old idea from 30 years ago, not the reality these days. Given enough time the yeast does what it needs to do.

Now......
Stepaway_copy.jpg


I am going to give you my standard rant about how, for the most part, the idea of "bad yeast" is really bogus....


Of god knows how many batches of beer I have made....I have never had fermentation not start, or a beer not turn out ok, and I have never ever ever had to add more yeast to a beer.

Except for infecting a starter due to poor sanitization, it really really is hard for yeast NOT to do what they do naturally.

That's how we can make a huge starter from the dregs of a bottle of beer...we let the viable (living) cells reproduce, and we feed them incrementally, and they continue to reproduce.

Seriously most LHBS know enough about what they are doing in terms of proper yeast storage, same with suppliers, it doesn't take a genius these days to know how to stick liquid (and dry yeasts usually) in a fridge, and ship in bulk in a styrofoam cooler.

We're talking billion dollar corporations (the yeast labs, and that's what they are LABS) and they aren't going to risk their rep by letting their suppliers and stores that carry their stuff , handle it improperly.

Besides...Yeast IS hardier than most newish brewers wanna give them props for...I mean You can't say that THIS YEAST was stored "properly" and yet, they managed to make a batch of beer with it.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-08/ff_primordial_yeast

If we can make beer with that....even the tiniest viable glop in a barely smacked pack, is going to work as well. :D

Gang I can't say this enough;

Unless you bought liguid yeast through the mail in the heat of summer, or added your yeast into boiling wort. your fermentation will happen.

Yeast just don't not work anymore, that is an idea that came from the bad old days before homebrewing was legalized in 1978 when yeast came in hard cakes that travelled in hot cargo holds of ships ...And then sat under the lid of blue ribbon malt extract for god knows how long on grocery stores shelves.

But since 1978 yeast science has been ongoing and the yeasts of today, wet OR dry are going to work in 99.9% of the situations we have, if you give them the time to do so.

But every noob who starts an "my yeast is dead thread" just really pertpetuates a fear that has come from way back then, they got it from Papazain and other brew books written Thirty or more years ago, and were told horror stories of those yeasts, and it influenced their writing, which influence nervous noob brewers as well. AND he influenced Palmer and other book writers, who passed that yeast doubt onto generations of brewers.

And then, most of the time, you new brewers then freak each other out!!!! You see an "infection" or "Not fermenting" thread title, or 10 on a given day :D and most of you don't even read the story behind it...you just see a dozen yeast is f-d up threads...and then believe my yeast has the potential to be f-d up.

But as the guy who answers those questions on a daily basis and finds out that no hydro reading was taken, nor has it been 72 hours, and THEY (not you) ARE going by airlock bubbling- AND when they do take a hydro reading or pop the bucket lid, they see that there was a krausen....and most of the time they actually post back, to say they were being paranoid, and fermentation DID happen.

But to someone who actually doesn't follow up on those threads, they think that yeast is so damn fragile....when it is the brewer's nerves that are. :D

But Unless you bought yeast through the mail in the heat of summer, or dumped it in boiling wort 99% of the time your yeast will do it's job...no matter what the title of many threads APPEAR to say.

Yeast handling and growing is a science, AND a BUSINESS, EVEN DRY YEAST GANG, they are all grown in labs, not fly by night operations (that's why the whole argument about dry being sub-par to liquid is really idiotic)..and with the internet, and books, and magazines, including this months BYO btw, even the most inbred LHBS employee SHOULD and probably does know how to properly handle and store yeast prior to selling it to you.

You just gotta have faith.:mug:
 
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