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Fermentation at 24 hours

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brimbal

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My first attempt at brewing, nervous that something went wrong. Using Brooklyn brew every day ipa kit, one pot ha! My question, should it look like this after 24hours of fermentation?

1409708479710.jpg
 
That is a HUGE amount of trub. But, I don't see anything that would concern me. Give it another day or three before getting concerned.
 
Of course! No problem with trub, you might not end up with as much bottles as you expect, but it won't impact your final product much.
 
I seem to be the only one who has a problem with this situation.......... 24 hours is a long time for fermentation to start in my book. The longer it takes for fermentation to start, the higher the probability that undesirables will take hold. My brews are often boiling away after 3-4 hours, and mostly finished within 4 days. But I make robust starters, and top crop heavily, probably over pitching..... if there is such a thing! I made a one gallon test brew recently that was showing the typical "boiling" action within 2 hours! If the yeast doesn't take hold pretty quickly, you can expect the lacto or something else to. Even sprinkling dry yeast on without any starter, you should be seeing something.
As far as trub.......... It will settle out and compact after fermentation. I often see a lot at the beginning......... It really is hot break / cold break material, and very loose. When the yeast is done flocculating, it won't look so bad.

Personally, if I didn't see action within 12 hours from now, I would make a good yeast starter, and probably re-heat to a boil to kill any nasties that were beginning to take hold. Wort is like auger, it is a perfect growth environment for microbes....but that's me, and I'm known for being an extremist!!



H.W.
 
Sure it's a while for me too, but I've had batches that take longer to start, who knows why, don't have a lab to analyze viability, nor do I worry much until 48 hours at the earliest. WLP300 for instance is famous for seeming dead for 24-48hrs then being a volcano. Others ferment so fast people miss them, which is why gravity readings are the best indicator of fermentation.

Having a new brewer get even more anxious about the things they're unsure of, is a recipe for a bad time, and potentially ruining a batch of beer that would have turned out just fine if they had just left it alone.
 
I seem to be the only one who has a problem with this situation.......... 24 hours is a long time for fermentation to start in my book. The longer it takes for fermentation to start, the higher the probability that undesirables will take hold. My brews are often boiling away after 3-4 hours, and mostly finished within 4 days. But I make robust starters, and top crop heavily, probably over pitching..... if there is such a thing! I made a one gallon test brew recently that was showing the typical "boiling" action within 2 hours! If the yeast doesn't take hold pretty quickly, you can expect the lacto or something else to. Even sprinkling dry yeast on without any starter, you should be seeing something.
As far as trub.......... It will settle out and compact after fermentation. I often see a lot at the beginning......... It really is hot break / cold break material, and very loose. When the yeast is done flocculating, it won't look so bad.

Personally, if I didn't see action within 12 hours from now, I would make a good yeast starter, and probably re-heat to a boil to kill any nasties that were beginning to take hold. Wort is like auger, it is a perfect growth environment for microbes....but that's me, and I'm known for being an extremist!!



H.W.

From what I've seen, dry yeast (especially not properly rehydrated) takes longer to get going than a fresh starter. Has that not been your experience? As it is OP's first beer, I assume he used dry yeast. Your post just talks about your experience with massive, overkill starters.

I wouldn't be concerned unless it goes longer than several days. On top of that, the effort / cost of reboiling + pitching more yeast or whatever is probably pretty close to the cost of just letting this batch ride out and seeing what happens.
 
I don't normally suggest people worry, but in this case if you don't have fermentation 48 hours from pitching, I think you had dead yeast.

With a 1-gallon relatively low-gravity batch, even a moderately old vial of liquid yeast without making a starter should be taking off within 24-36 hours. Dry yeast, a fresh vial, or a starter would be taking off even sooner.

If you have a homebrew shop nearby, I'd recommend grabbing a pack of US-05 tomorrow just in case it doesn't start. If it starts, having a pack of US-05 in your fridge is never a bad thing for a brewer to have in case of emergency!
 
I seem to be the only one who has a problem with this situation.......... 24 hours is a long time for fermentation to start in my book. The longer it takes for fermentation to start, the higher the probability that undesirables will take hold. My brews are often boiling away after 3-4 hours, and mostly finished within 4 days. But I make robust starters, and top crop heavily, probably over pitching..... if there is such a thing! I made a one gallon test brew recently that was showing the typical "boiling" action within 2 hours! If the yeast doesn't take hold pretty quickly, you can expect the lacto or something else to. Even sprinkling dry yeast on without any starter, you should be seeing something.
As far as trub.......... It will settle out and compact after fermentation. I often see a lot at the beginning......... It really is hot break / cold break material, and very loose. When the yeast is done flocculating, it won't look so bad.

Personally, if I didn't see action within 12 hours from now, I would make a good yeast starter, and probably re-heat to a boil to kill any nasties that were beginning to take hold. Wort is like auger, it is a perfect growth environment for microbes....but that's me, and I'm known for being an extremist!!



H.W.

Undesirables can't take hold if there are no undesirables in the fermenter. True, if the yeast is dead and you open up the fermenter a lot, there is a chance undesirables can get in there, but as long as you have the top shut tight and an airlock filled with vodka or StarSan solution (or something similar), it's not plausible for an infection to get in there without you opening it up.

I've had a pretty wide range of lag times for my yeasts. 12 hours for US-05. 5 hours for White Labs English cider. 18 hours for Nottingham. 72 hours for S-04. Haven't had any infections yet.

The advice people have given me and that I've read in books is that you should wait up to 72 hours before getting worried. One guy told me that he once had a lag time of 5 days before the yeast started fermentation. He said that the beer was pretty much okay in the end. I guess that comes down to the "don't worry, have a homebrew" saying.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice. I think I'll do just that worldvibes and wait until the 72 hour mark. If nothing is going on at that point, I will toss it consider it experience. I think regardless I will do a batch from extract next.
 
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