Dead Yeast?

[loxnar]

So here i post to my first major concern out of 5 batches that have all been successful brews. My problem is it has been almost 24 hours since i pitched the yeast and i have zero signs of fermentation. Not sure how long i should wait till i should worry but ive never had it take longer than 16 hours till i started seeing bubbles in the air lock. I just looked at the wort and i dont even see any krausen just hoppy ass smelling wort.

Here is what I did different with this beer compared to any other and I followed all this according to Palmer's How to Brew, and btw this is all extract brewing.

So I am doing partial boils and prior I would boil approximately 2 gallons of water for 10 minutes then dump into my sanitized fermenting bucket. What I did differently this time was to pour the water back and forth between the bucket and kettle 3 times before letting it sit to cool at room temperature.

The next thing i did different was to filter my wort with a strainer prior to pouring into the bucket....i got a lot of what i thought was cold/hot break material. I waited till the wort was 75 before adding to the fermenter and then i poured it back and forth between the bucket and the kettle 3 more times to help aerate it some more.

I then pitched the yeast and rocked the bucket back and forth for a good 2 minutes with the stopper in and a piece of plastic over it to help contain any spillage. Then i made a blow off tube and let it sit over night.

What has happened since then: during the night the wort may have gotten as cold as 60 but i am thinking more like 62-64. When I woke up this morning i saw there was no activity so i drained the bath tub of the cold water and let it get to more around room temperate 68-72 to try and help activate the yeast some more.

Also...this recipe is an IPA ive always just dumped the entire kettle into the fermenting bucket not worrying about hot/cold break material because I really didnt know any better and I havent had any flavoring issues, although i have made nothing but heavier darker malty beers. I let the kettle settle for a while before I poured it into the bucket to try and remove as much as that material as possible as well as i filtered it with the screen. What i noticed last night was that after 30-45 minutes of settling there was what looks to be hot/cold break material all the way up to the 1.5 gallon mark on the bucket!!! This morning it had settled down to the 1 gallon mark. When i took my hydrometer reading i had some of the wort in a hydrometer test tube and i had let it sit for about 15 minutes and i also noticed it in the tube. What it looked like to me was almost like really fine particles of hop. This is the hoppiest beer ive made so far so i didnt know what to think. My first instinct was to siphon the beer out of the bucket and get it off all that but i wasnt sure if it was suppossed to be like that or not. It may not even be hop particle it could be hot/cold break material but there is a lot of it...way more than ive ever seen in any of my other batches which i never filtered!

soooooo is my beer any good? should i siphon it off that junk at the bottom? should i worry about pitching some spare dry yeast packets i have? or should i give it another day and be patient and see what the outcome is =) I have noticed with brewing a lot of things require some waiting just to see what happens. Hope i didnt ramble on too long just wanted to cover most of the process to avoid any questions about other things ill post the recipe below.


Malt Extract
9lbs ultralight
1lb Light DME

Steeping Grains
8 oz Crystal 15L
8oz Crystal 40L
8oz Crystal 75L

Hops:
1oz Magnum Bittering Hops boiled for 30
1oz Cascade Flavoring Hops boiled for 20
1oz Liberty Aroma Hops boiled for 10 minutes
1oz Cascade Aroma Hops boiled for 10 minutes

Whirlfoc tablet at 15 minutes

Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP001

Estimaged OG 1.066-1.070
My OG 1.069
Pitched yeast at approxmately 68-70 degrees.

 

[Yooper]

Did you make a starter with the yeast? Without a starter, and an OG of over 1.060, it might take up to 72 hours for fermentation to get started.

 

[loxnar]

Did you make a starter with the yeast? Without a starter, and an OG of over 1.060, it might take up to 72 hours for fermentation to get started.

no i didnt and i know ive been reading and trying to learn as much as i can about this stuff...i figured it would usually always be cool with just the one vial but if i remember correctly anything over 60 you should up to 150bil instead of the 100 or so that come in the vial this also helps prevent off flavors from too much yeast activity if im correct...
any thoughts on the **** at the bottom of my fermentation tank? it really looked exactly like all the hop material i was taking out of the hop socks but there is a good amount of it i couldnt see getting that much hot or cold break material...the hot break lasted only maybe 5 minutes if that and i cooled the wort to 75 within about 25 minutes.

 

[loxnar]

This is a repost from yeast/fermentation forum but didnt get much luck there...btw i see the sticky so im assuming i should just wait im really more curious is your opinion of the sediment. And btw i did not have a starter yeast i realize this may be part of the issue...

So here i post to my first major concern out of 5 batches that have all been successful brews. My problem is it has been almost 24 hours since i pitched the yeast and i have zero signs of fermentation. Not sure how long i should wait till i should worry but ive never had it take longer than 16 hours till i started seeing bubbles in the air lock. I just looked at the wort and i dont even see any krausen just hoppy ass smelling wort.

Here is what I did different with this beer compared to any other and I followed all this according to Palmer's How to Brew, and btw this is all extract brewing.

So I am doing partial boils and prior I would boil approximately 2 gallons of water for 10 minutes then dump into my sanitized fermenting bucket. What I did differently this time was to pour the water back and forth between the bucket and kettle 3 times before letting it sit to cool at room temperature.

The next thing i did different was to filter my wort with a strainer prior to pouring into the bucket....i got a lot of what i thought was cold/hot break material. I waited till the wort was 75 before adding to the fermenter and then i poured it back and forth between the bucket and the kettle 3 more times to help aerate it some more.

I then pitched the yeast and rocked the bucket back and forth for a good 2 minutes with the stopper in and a piece of plastic over it to help contain any spillage. Then i made a blow off tube and let it sit over night.

What has happened since then: during the night the wort may have gotten as cold as 60 but i am thinking more like 62-64. When I woke up this morning i saw there was no activity so i drained the bath tub of the cold water and let it get to more around room temperate 68-72 to try and help activate the yeast some more.

Also...this recipe is an IPA ive always just dumped the entire kettle into the fermenting bucket not worrying about hot/cold break material because I really didnt know any better and I havent had any flavoring issues, although i have made nothing but heavier darker malty beers. I let the kettle settle for a while before I poured it into the bucket to try and remove as much as that material as possible as well as i filtered it with the screen. What i noticed last night was that after 30-45 minutes of settling there was what looks to be hot/cold break material all the way up to the 1.5 gallon mark on the bucket!!! This morning it had settled down to the 1 gallon mark. When i took my hydrometer reading i had some of the wort in a hydrometer test tube and i had let it sit for about 15 minutes and i also noticed it in the tube. What it looked like to me was almost like really fine particles of hop. This is the hoppiest beer ive made so far so i didnt know what to think. My first instinct was to siphon the beer out of the bucket and get it off all that but i wasnt sure if it was suppossed to be like that or not. It may not even be hop particle it could be hot/cold break material but there is a lot of it...way more than ive ever seen in any of my other batches which i never filtered!

soooooo is my beer any good? should i siphon it off that junk at the bottom? should i worry about pitching some spare dry yeast packets i have? or should i give it another day and be patient and see what the outcome is =) I have noticed with brewing a lot of things require some waiting just to see what happens. Hope i didnt ramble on too long just wanted to cover most of the process to avoid any questions about other things ill post the recipe below.


Malt Extract
9lbs ultralight
1lb Light DME

Steeping Grains
8 oz Crystal 15L
8oz Crystal 40L
8oz Crystal 75L

Hops:
1oz Magnum Bittering Hops boiled for 30
1oz Cascade Flavoring Hops boiled for 20
1oz Liberty Aroma Hops boiled for 10 minutes
1oz Cascade Aroma Hops boiled for 10 minutes

Whirlfoc tablet at 15 minutes

Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP001

Estimaged OG 1.066-1.070
My OG 1.069
Pitched yeast at approxmately 68-70 degrees.

 

[Rentachik]

just wait it out. A buddy of mine was complaining about a fermentation that did not start. He called and said there were no bubbles in the air lock. Turns out there was a small leak in the seal for the lid. He pressed it back down and the air lock started bubbling away.

You should be fine.

 

[COLObrewer]

I would get worried if it doesn't take off in another couple of days, sometimes it takes a while, everything else sounds normal for an IPA.

 

[loxnar]

I would get worried if it doesn't take off in another couple of days, sometimes it takes a while, everything else sounds normal for an IPA.

so the stuff at the bottom is hop particles you think?

 

[pkeeler]

Did you proof the yeast at all, or just pitch it in dry? Did the label have a date?

My IPAs have much more trub than my porters. I have to assume all the extra hop dust is what makes it up.

 

[loxnar]

Did you proof the yeast at all, or just pitch it in dry? Did the label have a date?

My IPAs have much more trub than my porters. I have to assume all the extra hop dust is what makes it up.

added it straight in from the vial...didnt look at the date but my brew store deals in a lot of volume and really busy im doubting it was bad i only had it for a few weeks myself

 

[brewagentjay]

added it straight in from the vial...didnt look at the date but my brew store deals in a lot of volume and really busy im doubting it was bad i only had it for a few weeks myself

Did you do the required shake up the vial prior to pitching? This was White Labs right?

 

[loxnar]

Did you do the required shake up the vial prior to pitching? This was White Labs right?

yes and yes

 

[brewagentjay]

I'm assuming SG reading are not showing signs of fermentation? I'm stumped perhaps it just going to take a bit if nothing in another day or so I'd pitch some dry yeast on it.

 

[loxnar]

I'm assuming SG reading are not showing signs of fermentation? I'm stumped perhaps it just going to take a bit if nothing in another day or so I'd pitch some dry yeast on it.

yea i may be making a trip to the brew store for some us05

 

[jheld00]

i had a similar thing happen to me last week with my ipa i woke up the next morning and nothing was happening yet the weiss i brewed on the same day was going nuts. so i went to class all day when i came home still nothing not even a one bubble on the surface of the wort. so i took my fermenter and set it on the floor and knocked it back and forth pretty aggressively. when i came home from work about 6 hours later the yeast were feeding like crazy. i used the Pacman yeast not the WLP001

 

[loxnar]

update:
its fermenting probably take this note to make a starter yeast next time or my buddy is really recommending dry yeast to me as there are double the cells plus starter nutrients in the packet as well. Oh and a longer shelf life and half the cost. Said he used US-05 and WLP001 and didnt notice any different....as i drag my feet and try and catch up with all the right information i will have to take pitching rates into more consideration next time

for now i just hope my IPA still turns out clean enough to drink

 

[COLObrewer]

so the stuff at the bottom is hop particles you think?

Yes, and yeast building a few billion friends, when using liquid yeast, as you've learned, there is a lag time while the yeast create the proper colony for the OG of the wort.

Keep on brewing my friend

EDIT: By the way there are vastly more different liquid yeast strains than there are dry yeast, for many reasons, I like the way Palmer says it:http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html .