Damn you yeast!

[Shambolic]

Well it finally happened; I have a brew that won't start fermenting. If I get home today and it still hasn't taken off, that will be over three days.

It's really strange, because I made a starter the day before I brewed, and that was frothy and happy before I pitched it. Furthermore, there are large yeasty chunks floating around in the beer; it just hasn't started bubbling or forming any krausen.

I'm using a dry ale yeast (Safale US-56), and it was quite cool for the first couple of days (slowly dropped from 17 deg C to 14 deg C). Yesterday I put in my in-brew heater to bring it back up to 19 deg C, but by this morning still nothing.

If if hasn't started when I get home, I think I will pitch more yeast. Which is better for this - to make a starter with it and leave it a day or so then pitch, or just sprinkle the dry yeast into the primary?

 

[Ivan Lendl]

I'm using a dry ale yeast (Safale US-56), Which is better for this - to make a starter with it and leave it a day or so then pitch, or just sprinkle the dry yeast into the primary?

Neither...you dont need a starter, but you do need to rehydrate it. just boil a pint or so of water, cool it to 85-100F, then sprinkle the yeast into it, let sit for 5 minutes, then stir (with sanitized fork) the yeast in to get it all wet, let sit for another 15-20 minutes, then pitch into wort.

you dont need a starter because dry yeast have an adeqate amount of yeast, but you dont want to just sprinkle it into the wort because they need to absorb water before they can work, and the sugar in the wort will retard this.

 

[david_42]

Gravity? You might have had a stealth ferment.

 

[SteveM]

If you don't take gravity readings, open it up and take a sniff...that should be enough to tell you if it fermented and you just missed it, which is a possibility.

 

[Shambolic]

I did open it - to put the heater in - and it smelled unfermented. I also have a habit of leaving my original gravity sample in the test tube with a bit of cling wrap over the top... I tasted that on day three, and it definitely hadn't fermented at all. It just started forming some krausen last night, so I thought all might be well. As of this morning though, still nothing from the fermenter...

I'm baffled. I bought some more dry yeast, so I will pitch that tonight and see how it goes...

 

[Shambolic]

Well, I was going to repitch, but...

Four days after brewing, and almost two days after I brought the temp. up, this batch started fermenting. It's been going flat out for the best part of a day now. It's a strange strange world we live in...

From now on, I don't pitch at those sort of temps.