Any suggestions.. in serious pickle

[witster18]

Here's the pickle. Traditional tim taylorish burton ale, white labs burton yeast , 5gal, 800ml starter, og target was 1.052 but missed badly at 58/59.. no activity about to hit 88 hrs, no grav movement at all, no access to more of that yeast, what can i pitch n a pinch with a burton water profile n hope to salvage anything drinkAble?

 

[Braufessor]

You could just pitch something like 04 or 05 dry yeast and have a drinkable pale ale of some sort.
The missed gravity does not really explain lack of fermentation though..... unless your yeast was really old, even a smallish starter like you had should have had little to no problem with a beer under 1.060.

 

[ebstauffer]

Not sure where you're from but.. Amazon.com next day shipping? Do you have any other yeast? You could always try a wild yeast experiment.

 

[SlitheryDee]

That seems highly strange to me. You made a starter, so that served to proof the yeast as well. It's hard to explain a lack of activity this far in. What were the pitching conditions? What was the wort and starter temp at pitching time? Did you aerate? Anything else atypical about this batch?

 

[Morrey]

Per the other posters above me here, did your starter look normal while it was on the stir plate? You can easily tell if your yeast is active and growing in the flask.

Nearing day 4 w/o fermentation so you are getting near the red flag zone here. Your wort is a sitting duck for issues at this stage. So you are checking the gravity and not just looking at BO tube activity? I did that once and my fermenter lid was leaking. My bad.

If all else fails, I'd sprinkle in a dry sachet of 05 as was mentioned. It will be neutral unlike the yeast you originally used, but heck it will make beer that is nice anyway.

EDIT: Are you using a floating hydrometer to check SG? If there is by chance any alcohol being created, a refractomer will give you false readings unless you do calculations to correct.

 

[botigol]

Is it possible that it fermented quickly and you missed it? I recently read a thread here on HBT where that happened with Nottingham. IIRC fermentation was done in less than 48 hours.

 

[witster18]

Aerated n pitched at 67f.. totally baffled, i have 05, gonna hydrate n pitch it

 

[witster18]

Thx guys, i guess it is what it is

 

[madscientist451]

I'd pull a sample and check your gravity. If its the same as before pitching the yeast, and you're concerned about an infection, you could always heat the wort back up to 180F or so, chill it back down and re-pitch.
But I'd skip all that and give it a couple packs of 05 and see what happens.

 

[witster18]

Ima ck the gravity one more time before pitching 05

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Try rehydrating and adding in a single package of Nottingham dry yeast. No aeration is required for Nottingham per Lallemand/Danstar, so that should make it perfect for late pitching (IMHO).

I've never seen Nottingham fail to ferment.

I just tested the no aeration thing for Nottingham, along with under-pitching. I tossed a single rehydrated pack into a 1.068 SG wort (with ~6.25 gallons of this in the fermenter) at 70 degrees F., and I did no aeration. At 14 hours post pitching it was bubbling at 8 bubbles per minute. I'm currently in the process of cooling it down to an estimated 62 degrees F., via ambient air surrounding it at 57 degrees (and with allowance for ~5 degrees of yeast activity generated heat), so (hopefully) the Nottingham will be well behaved ester wise, and also (hopefully again) not need a blow-off assembly installed.

 

[witster18]

Yea, using hydrometer.. gravity still 1.059 so i pitched 05.. wort still smells great😂

 

[ncbrewer]

I just tested the no aeration thing for Nottingham, along with under-pitching.

I hope you'll post the FG on this batch. Lag time seems ok - it will be interesting to see how it attenuates.

 

[Morrey]

There is a strong possibility your liquid yeast had been damaged in shipping to you or your LHBS to the point it simply wasn't viable. I recently had a WLP002 that was DOA and when spun up never showed any signs resembling vitality. I let it down the drain and used a sachet of 05 as a backup. I keep a ready supply of 05 for general use, extreme situations as this or even to finish out a beer if the FG finishes a bit too high. May only use a portion of a pack for this, however.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I hope you'll post the FG on this batch. Lag time seems ok - it will be interesting to see how it attenuates.

Now 24 hours post pitch, and 25 bubbles per minute.

Update: ~39 hours post Nottingham pitch, and at 56 bubbles per minute. Krausen is about 3-1/2" thick. About 2-1/2" below the bottom of the airlock stopper, but this is a 7 gallon Fermonster plastic carboy (actual volume is about 7.2 gallons), and there is not much volume left up there as the krausen nears the neck. Ambient temp is presently 64 in my garage (where my fermenter is located). Actual temperature inside the fermenter is unknown (but likely closer to 69 degrees, which is warmer than I wanted it to be). Cooling the garage down aggressively at present to prevent it from taking off and going out through the airlock. Garage doors are both open. ~51 degrees outside right now, and forecast is for cloudy and a high of 56 about 10 hours from now. Hope I caught it in time. Will leave the garage doors open all day. The secret to controlling Lallemand/Danstar Nottingham is to keep it cool. I definitely need a fermentation refrigerator. Planning brewing and fermentation around a 7 day weather forecast is for the birds. Yesterday the days actual high went 6 degrees over the forecast. It probably takes many hours to cool down ~6.2 gallons just via ambient air alone. And more so when the carboy is covered to keep out light.

Update again: ~43 hours post pitch. 57 degrees ambient in my garage. Krausen is getting dangerously close to the airlock stopper. About 1/2" more rise and it will be at the stopper. 71 bubbles per minute.

Yet another update: Now ~47 hours post pitch. 81 bubbles per minute. Krausen has not risen any further than for the above update. Looks like I caught it and stabilized it in the nick of time. Garage is @ 59 degrees inside. Outside air temp is 57 degrees, and still nicely cloudy. Internal fermenter temp is unknown. Both garage doors are still wide open. The weather is my friend today. Should remain nicely cool outside for then next 2-1/2 days also.

 

[witster18]

Ok.. so i pitch 05 and it starts activity quickly... steadily over the next day or so then bam.. i come home from work and theres 3 feet of foam on the flr(welcome back burton?).. this has been the craziest ferm ive ever seen..

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Ok.. so i pitch 05 and it starts activity quickly... steadily over the next day or so then bam.. i come home from work and theres 3 feet of foam on the flr(welcome back burton?).. this has been the craziest ferm ive ever seen..

What were your temperature conditions?

 

[kh54s10]

Ok.. so i pitch 05 and it starts activity quickly... steadily over the next day or so then bam.. i come home from work and theres 3 feet of foam on the flr(welcome back burton?).. this has been the craziest ferm ive ever seen..

Blow off tube.... EVERY time....