I'm hoping mine will be done some time early next week. Want it ready for spring break lol
After brewing for about four and a half years, I decided to try my hand at making wine. Pretty easy and overall about the same amount of time. Most of brewing's time is up front - brew day. Once you're done, generally about three weeks or so (after bottling) before you can start drinking. With some of the wine kits I made, they suggest you wait one to two YEARS for the wine to be best...:smack:I had the same issue with mine. Pitched my yeast around 2am (monday) and didn't see any activity for over 24 hours. Was worried because it was my first batch, and even though I knew I should have, I didn't make a yeast starter.
Worst part about making beer, is the waiting ha
Do I RDWHAHB or start to think about needing to repitch?
I'd wait till after 72hrs. If you are concerned you could bump the temp up a bit. 64 is close to the bottom temp recommended for that strain. But again I'd wait the 72hrs and I think you'll be fine.
If your fermentation takes 3 days to get started, is there any hope that it'll still be a good beer? Doesn't that usually suggest some extremely stressed yeast (too cold, underpitched, insufficient oxygen, whatever), which will lead to off-flavours? I've had fermentations finish in 72 hours. If one took 72 hours just to get started, I'd be pretty apprehensive about the quality of the resulting beer.
And there is no way you have had fermentation complete in 72 hours. Impossible unless you started with 1.01 wort. You may have had gotten krausen fall within 72 but primary fermentation takes at *least* a week.
When should you start to worry? I made a lager Sunday with a 1.034 og and used an American lager wyeast smack pack and haven't seen any activity. Should I repitch? I did a 5 gallon batch and split it up and used saflager 34/70 and that started fermenting he next day.
Can you clarify? Are you saying you brewed a 5 gallon batch and divided it into two 2.5 gallon batches, and that you pitched a smack pack into one and saflager 34/70 in the other? Did you make a starter for the liquid yeast? Did you rehydrate the dry yeast? How did you aerate the batches? At what temperature are they currently? Have you checked the gravity of either one?
Excellent, that's very helpful. At what temperature are you fermenting the beers?
Regardless, you significantly underpitched the one with the liquid yeast. The rule of thumb for pitching rates is 4 billion cells per 5 gallon batch per point of original gravity, for ales. For lagers, double it. In your case, for a 2.5 gallon batch of 1.034 wort and lager yeast, the optimal yeast cell count would have been:
4 billion * 34 * 0.5 * 2 = 136 billion cells
1 smack pack, fresh from the factory and 100% viable, provides 100 billion cells. Since yours was 3 months past its expiration, your viability was likely abysmally low, likely in the 30% range, meaning you pitched 30 billion cells, or barely 1/5th of what you should have pitched. The yeast are stressed and are struggling to multiply to the necessary cell mass. I'm sure it will still ferment, but it's going to take a while, and you'll likely notice some distinctly "un-lager-like" flavours in the resulting beer. Next time, make a starter, using a site like Mr. Malty to calculate the appropriate size starter.
Lagers also need lots of oxygen. Shaking/splashing/stirring/aerating with a pump are more than adequate for ales, but to truly have a good lager fermentation, you'll need to consider an oxygenation stone. You can still make lagers with what you've got, they just won't be as "clean" if you'd hit it with pure oxygen.
Lagers are a special kind of beast, they're much more sensitive and temperamental than ales, but they can be very rewarding when you get it right.
Also, get in the habit of rehydrating your dry yeast. Here's the manufacturer's data sheet for the yeast you used, which explains their recommended rehydration procedure. Sprinkling dry yeast directly into the wort can reduce cell viability by up to 50%, and as I just outlined, lagers can't afford any reduction in yeast cell count.
That is a good point, I will let it ferment out so i can taste the differences in both of them. Thank you once again for your great help.
That's left over krausen all over the place in there. Perfectly normal. You must have a Brewer's Best style bucket with no lid seal?
The seal line looks pretty good to me and the krausen line looks like it fermented fine too.
We all feel like it failed the first time or like me on my 6th!
Take the advice of those that have all the experience, wait it out, it will be fine.
Well, I could never find a lid with a seal on it to fit the BB-style ale pails. Mine leaked wort out around the lid & down onto those ribs around the top during initial fermentation. Thus not a lot of bubbling in the airlock. I always thought the reverse could also be true, sucking air under the lid during cool down after initial fermentation is done, creating a partial vacuum.
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