Do my fermentation look ok?

Finlandbrews · May 16, 2016

I just made 2 batches of 4.5 gallons that I pitched 11 hours ago with US safale 05 and UK safale 04. I hydrated both yeasts for 10 to 15 mins before pitching. The safale 04 produced a thick foam on top of the yeast and expiration date was January 2017. On the contrary the safale 05 stayed very liquid but had a September 2016 expiration date.

I have my fermentation temp around 18 degrees celsius for both batches and I want to know if my fermentation look normal.

The reason why I wonder is that I see a thick yeast layer in the bottom of my Fermenting vessels with very low krausen, especially for my safale 05 where there is no krausen only fine bubbles sticking to the edges of the fermenting vessels.

Is everything normal at this stage? If not possible to say what should I check?

2 first pictures are from the US safale 05 after 11 hours of pitching 11 grams of dry yeast (expiration September 2016) but hydrated 15 mins.

2 last pictures are from the dry yeast UK safale 04 (expiration January 2017) after 11 hours of pitching the 11 grams rehydrated with tap water for 15 minutes.

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hottpeper13 · May 16, 2016

They look fine for that amount of time, looks like it's in between lag and growth phase. When the bottoms look like that for me I give them a swirl and watch the air lock, there is always lots of activity. Give it a swirl, you'll be fine.

Finlandbrews · May 16, 2016

I actually see lot of activity from the safale 04 but nothing from the US 05. Shall I swirl like you say? Or should I pitch another yeast?

EarthwormJim · May 16, 2016

I would keep waiting it out. I would not pitch anything else yet. There is a thread stickyed here that says not to worry for at least 72 hours. Very hard advice to follow, I know. If you feel the need to do something, give it a swirl, but just be patient, the yeast know what they are doing. I might have missed it but I didn't see if you said what the gravity is.

Finlandbrews · May 16, 2016

EarthwormJim said:
I would keep waiting it out. I would not pitch anything else yet. There is a thread stickyed here that says not to worry for at least 72 hours. Very hard advice to follow, I know. If you feel the need to do something, give it a swirl, but just be patient, the yeast know what they are doing. I might have missed it but I didn't see if you said what the gravity is.

I swirled now, hopefully it will do the job. I just got worried because of the package expiration September this year and I doubt the homebrew store stored it well... Gravity is 1.048