Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs.

[Bikerbrewgal]

Thanks for the info. I'm a new homebrewer (1 yr. extract brewing) and this is the first of my 12 batches that showed absolutely no airlock activity for the first 3.5 days. Brewed a Torpedo IPA clone. Hop heavy with an OG of 1.060. Pitched dry at 72 degrees. Set in basement where temp dropped to 68 & is now resting at 66. This morning I pulled the lid to take a peek and sure enough, there is plenty of krausen floating on top. When I closed the lid securely I noticed a very small amount of percolating from the airlock. Whew. Was a tad concerned about this one as IPAs are my fav-o-rite and I didn't want to ruin it.



**UPDATE: Checked gravity.... OG= 1.060; FG=1.010 potential ABV= 6.5%. Lesson learned...ALWAYS do a gravity reading. This is the first beer I've brewed that had absolutely NO airlock activity for the entire 13 days in primary. If I didn't take an OG reading, I would have thought that I needed to re-pitch the yeast, and would have mistakenly done so. By day 7 in primary, the krausen had sunk to the bottom and the gravity reading told me that the beer had, in fact, fermented. Off to secondary I go w/ some dry-hopping.

 

[kevin009]

Great sticky, because it is a popular question.

I will say though, let's not advocate that thinking fermentation starting in more than 12 hours is a good thing. It isn't. Any longer than 12 hours and you are looking for trouble--infections, sub-par beer and quite frankly it is a bad brewing practice.

Let's stress this thread on doing starters, aerating and oxygenating, and fundamental brewing practices!

Agreed!

 

[James929292]

Can I brew 1 gallon with 10 grains of visible yeast? Will it even ferment?

 

[bleme]

It should. Whether you try it or not probably has a direct correlation with how fond you are of Vegas.

 

[mikemet]

Why not post in the yeast thread- someone will stumble along and say- heh thats happening to me too!

I have had some great success lately with the yeast. I have recently started brewing again- after a 20 year, 1 batch hiatus.

My IPA- yeast was great.
My Belguim took off like CRAZY
My MrBeer Experimental jug with 2 year old ingredients- including the yeast- took off instantly.
My Apfelwein- sweet lovely yeast.

Last batch- a nice pale ale- no crazy fermentation action till way after the 24 hour mark. After studying yeast in all of my batches- I knew everything would be fine. The wort was sweet, the temp was great, my feeling is that the yeast should have woken the heck up and kicked major butt- but that only happened after a little patience.

Tonight when I get home I expect either nice smelling air lock smells or some bad ass rhino farts. The yeast is alive and doing its job. Good work boys.... not get back to making beer.

 

[DoctorMemory]

Just wanted to throw in my own no-bubbles story. I brewed a Brooklyn Brewshop Belgian Dubbel on Saturday (my first all-grain brew). Took a *lot* longer than I realized, and when I couldn't get the wort below 80F by midnight I just said "Close enough" and filled the jug with my wort and dumped the yeast on top. Stuck it down in my 70F basement and had absolutely no activity for two days. I was starting to get a little concerned, so I read through this thread and found the suggestion to shake up the fermenter a bit. Since it's just a one-gallon jug it was pretty easy to whirlpool the wort a bit and get the yeast back in to suspension. Four hours later, I still don't have any airlock activity, but I can see the yeast doing *something*. So I think I'll just let it go and see what happens.

 

[H-ost]

Just wanted to throw in my own no-bubbles story. I brewed a Brooklyn Brewshop Belgian Dubbel on Saturday (my first all-grain brew). Took a *lot* longer than I realized, and when I couldn't get the wort below 80F by midnight I just said "Close enough" and filled the jug with my wort and dumped the yeast on top. Stuck it down in my 70F basement and had absolutely no activity for two days. I was starting to get a little concerned, so I read through this thread and found the suggestion to shake up the fermenter a bit. Since it's just a one-gallon jug it was pretty easy to whirlpool the wort a bit and get the yeast back in to suspension. Four hours later, I still don't have any airlock activity, but I can see the yeast doing *something*. So I think I'll just let it go and see what happens.

Has it started?

 

[DoctorMemory]

Has it started?

Nope. I can see these little "puffs" of what looks like foam popping to the top pretty regularly, but still no airlock activity and no real krausen to speak of on top. Think I'll swing by the homebrew store tomorrow and pick up another pack of Safbrew T-58 (or whatever Belgian yeast they have).

 

[DoctorMemory]

Well, I seem to have brewed yeasticide. I picked up another packet of yeast and pitched it yesterday. 24 hours later and there is no activity. There also appears to be some kind of oily film on top of my wort. This is only a one-gallon batch, so I'll probably go ahead and bottle it, but I'm not expecting much.

 

[mmcouch]

Brewed my first batch last night and worried that I killed the yeast during re-hydration. I microwaved a cup of a water for about a minute or a little more then poured it on top of the dry yeast in a mason jar and covered. It sat like this for about an hour. I gave the jar a good swirl to stir it up before pitching. If the water was too hot could I have killed the yeast? It's been ~ 24 hrs since pitching with no activity (I peeped though the airlock gasket). After reading the majority of this thread I know that I need to wait a least a few more days before taking action.

Comments are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[edmanster]

Brewed my first batch last night and worried that I killed the yeast during re-hydration. I microwaved a cup of a water for about a minute or a little more then poured it on top of the dry yeast in a mason jar and covered. It sat like this for about an hour. I gave the jar a good swirl to stir it up before pitching. If the water was too hot could I have killed the yeast? It's been ~ 24 hrs since pitching with no activity (I peeped though the airlock gasket). After reading the majority of this thread I know that I need to wait a least a few more days before taking action.

Comments are appreciated. Thanks.

i know with my microwave, 1 cup of water at a minute is close to boiling so you might have fried your yeast and turnd them into food for the next ones you pitch.. i wait until it gets down to 105f..

 

[H-ost]

You are right, you still need to wait before you can decide if something is wrong.

Did you take a temp of the water by chance? Some people re-hydrate at 90*-105* as per the packaging instructions.

A small experiment to keep your hands busy in the meantime would be to nuke the same amount of water in the same bowl for the same amount of time and take a temp reading.

 

[mmcouch]

I did not measure the temp of the re-hydration water (should have though--first time lesson). I will run a test batch in the microwave to measure the temp. Heading out to the local brew shop later and will pick up a few extra yeast packets. Will wait another day probably before making the call on re-pitching.

Question: should I re-aerate before I pitch the new yeast?

 

[DoctorMemory]

In the interest of full disclosure, I just wanted to provide the thrilling conclusion to my Belgian Dubbel fermentation flop. Turns out everything went better than expected. I went ahead and bottled, priming with the recommended 3T of maple syrup. Let it condition for two weeks and put a couple in the fridge. Popped one last night and it hissed when I cracked the cap! Not only that, but it had a pretty decent head on it when I poured it into a glass. Tasted pretty good, too! So, even though I had no airlock activity and no krausen, fermentation, it seems, found a way. I was going to give up on this whole small-batch thing, but now I think I'll invest in a refractometer and give it another shot.

 

[bleme]

I did not measure the temp of the re-hydration water (should have though--first time lesson). I will run a test batch in the microwave to measure the temp. Heading out to the local brew shop later and will pick up a few extra yeast packets. Will wait another day probably before making the call on re-pitching.

Question: should I re-aerate before I pitch the new yeast?

It takes 2 minutes to check the temp on the water. If it is over 120F, no need to waste another second: rehydrate and pitch that yeast. I always keep at least one pack of US-05 in the freezer. It lasts a LONG time that way and in the last 8 months I have needed it twice (though once was for a friend).

 

[H-ost]

In the interest of full disclosure, I just wanted to provide the thrilling conclusion to my Belgian Dubbel fermentation flop. Turns out everything went better than expected. I went ahead and bottled, priming with the recommended 3T of maple syrup. Let it condition for two weeks and put a couple in the fridge. Popped one last night and it hissed when I cracked the cap! Not only that, but it had a pretty decent head on it when I poured it into a glass. Tasted pretty good, too! So, even though I had no airlock activity and no krausen, fermentation, it seems, found a way. I was going to give up on this whole small-batch thing, but now I think I'll invest in a refractometer and give it another shot.

Congrats! I agree that a refractometer would be a good investment if you were to continue doing small batches.

 

[mmcouch]

Picked two packets of dry yeast yesterday. Guy at local brew shop said don't even bother re-hydrating just re-aerate and sprinkle straight in. Going to check my wort one more time this morning. Will report back.

 

[bleme]

Picked two packets of dry yeast yesterday. Guy at local brew shop said don't even bother re-hydrating just re-aerate and sprinkle straight in. Going to check my wort one more time this morning. Will report back.

If I had a nickel for all the bad advice given by brew shops....

 

[mmcouch]

Checked the wort a few minutes ago and what do you know...steady bubbles in the airlock. About 1 per second. Not sure when this started as I didn't check yesterday. Will let this go for about two weeks and bottle. I have a secondary fermenter but I don't want to risk contamination as I already opened the lid to check within the first 24 hrs.

 

[andycr]

My first batch was going crazy when I woke up 11 hours after pitching. My second batch is at 17 hours now and nothing. Same yeast, very similar OG. Oh well.

 

[ggoodman]

Beauty of Org chem and Micro Bio. more to it than just the gravity of the sample's

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

Well, after almost 36 hours, my pumpkin beer started to show signs of fermentation. Before I went to bed last night, there were N signs. No foam/ krausen, no bubbles in airlock, nothing floating around. It was just sitting there. Put it in the keezer with my other beer in primary (a pale ale), and woke up to about a 1/2 inch krause on top with bubbles in the airlock. I used WLP051 yeast which is known as a slow starter, but I didnt think it would be that low. I dont know if the lower temp is what it wanted, but it seemed to work. Fermenting away at about 65 deg F right now. Hope this helps anyone using this yeast. Be patient, and use a starter if you can.

 

[jtkratzer]

Just had one take 80 hours to show a krausen or any visual signs of activity. No worries.

 

[GameFreac]

72 hours into my first batch. OG was 1.050 and I just checked the gravity...still 1.050.

I did notice a layer of something on the bottom. Is that the yeast or should I go buy more yeast and re-pitch? I used 1187 Ringwood Ale and the smack pack barely inflated.

 

[jtkratzer]

72 hours into my first batch. OG was 1.050 and I just checked the gravity...still 1.050.

I did notice a layer of something on the bottom. Is that the yeast or should I go buy more yeast and re-pitch? I used 1187 Ringwood Ale and the smack pack barely inflated.

Stuff on the bottom is probably break material and crud/stuff from the brew/boil.

Mine took over 84 hours to get started and it's rolling now.

 

[GameFreac]

Stuff on the bottom is probably break material and crud/stuff from the brew/boil.

Mine took over 84 hours to get started and it's rolling now.

Damn, that was my only hope that something was working.

So how long should I wait before I think of getting more yeast?

 

[DoctorMemory]

I think if your gravity hasn't changed after 72 hours you're justified in re-pitching. I'd re-aerate before, too.

 

[jtkratzer]

I think if your gravity hasn't changed after 72 hours you're justified in re-pitching. I'd re-aerate before, too.

Especially if no change in gravity. And probably only if no change in gravity.

 

[GameFreac]

Especially if no change in gravity. And probably only if no change in gravity.

Yeah I don't think I aerated enough so I bought some Nottingham dry yeast, sprinkled it on top, stirred it around and shook the fermenter so hopefully it does something now.

 

[jtkratzer]

Yeah I don't think I aerated enough so I bought some Nottingham dry yeast, sprinkled it on top, stirred it around and shook the fermenter so hopefully it does something now.

A sanitized whisk works really well to froth it up.