Did i mess up?

[PNP]

I'm making an American Pale Ale. I ordered ingredients online and my wyyeast American ale yeast canoe partially inflated. I was told this is common for this yeast but they I could put it in the refrigerator and it would keep fine.
When I went to activate the yeast it was so inflated I could barely find the inner bladder but I did manage to break it. When I pitched, the wyyeast bag was so huge I could barely cut it. Now, almost 5 days later there is NO airlock activity. 0. None. Is my beer ruined?

 

[BlindFaith]

Ruined? No...

What temp did you pitch at? What temp is the beer at now? You could also have a leak in your bung or stopper. Even if your yeast was bad, you can still just re-pitch with some Nottingham's or the likes. The only way to know FOR SURE if your beer has fermented at all is to take a gravity reading. What style beer anyhow?

 

[Pratzie]

Did u see any krausen at all? Check the gravitiy, u may need to order another pack and pitch that.

This is why I make starters. To guarantee viability and yeast health. Or use dry yeast.

 

[microbusbrewery]

You'll see quite a few posts repeating that airlock activity is not the best indicator of fermentation. The best way to tell is to take a gravity reading and compare it to your OG.

My guess is some of the yeast probably died in transit so you essentially under-pitched. It doesn't mean your beer is ruined, but your yeast are prob a bit stressed. Swelling of the packet in transit is pretty normal...just means it got warm enough that the yeast started consuming some of the wort in the smack pack. The problem is when it gets too warm and kills off some of the yeast.

If I order a yeast online, I usually only do it during the cooler times of the year; summertime shipping can be really hard on liquid yeast. If you have a LHBS, you might be better off buying your liquid yeast locally.

 

[KepowOb]

Yeah, no air lock activity doesn't really mean very much. If your using a bucket fermenter, crack it open and see if there is any krausen, or a rim of gunk around the wort, which would be the sign that there was krausen and everything is going as it should.

Did you take a gravity reading before you pitched the yeast? If there is no sign of any activity having took place, take another one now and see if the gravity has changed. If it hasn't moved at all, pitch some more yeast.

 

[PNP]

Here's what it's looking like now.

 

[DocScott]

Here's what it's looking like now.

Looks perfect. Nice krausen ring (that brown/green cake on the bucket above the beer). This is great indicator that your beer did ferment. Best way to know though is to drop a sanitized hydrometer in there and measure the gravity.

Looks like you fermented just fine. Probably had a bad seal somewhere and the gas escaped there rather than through your airlock. No big deal.

Seal that back up and let it sit for another few days or weeks to get the final few gracvity points and let the yeast drop. Congrats!

 

[PNP]

Thanks everyone for your help. I would've just ported down the drain.

 

[seph]

Looks tasty to me...

 

[fizgig]

Looking at that, your bucket lid must not have sealed, you must have had a pretty vigorous fermentation for an inch or two of krausen. No worries though, the positive outflow of CO2 and the density of it compared to air kept any nasties out and blanketed the wort, a Mr. Beer fermentor doesn't even seal.

 

[woozy]

Thanks everyone for your help. I would've just ported down the drain.

Umm, out of curiosity, where did this weird idea come from that if beer doesn't go perfectly it must be toxic swill and be tossed?

**NEVER** toss beer!

If it hadn't fermented (which it had, but if it hadn't) ... well... you re-pitch more yeast. There's absolutely nothing about having the wort sitting for days without fermenting that puts it into the toxic waste category.