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

[ibrewdou]

whats the best way to aerate and how much oxygen does it need? with an activator of liquid yeast whats the best way to do a starter? i have a flask and airlock. it came with malt. i dont have a stir plate and whats the best way to keep it at 72* f.? and if i do a starter how long after activity begins do i pitch it? thanks for the guidance

 

[Dr. Fedwell]

I made an impromptu batch of APA. I had no starter, but I pitched 2 vials of wlp 01. I always make starters, and this was a bad idea when I did it. It has been 12 hours and no ferm yet. Can I pitch a pack of nottingham still? Should have used it last night.

 

[bradsul]

2 vials (assuming they weren't at or near expiry) is enough yeast without a starter. 12 hours is too soon to worry however, give it another day or two before you pitch more yeast.

What temperature do you have it at? Did you oxygenate in some fashion? Both of those factors will affect the lag time.

 

[Dr. Fedwell]

the exp was Feb 3rd. I am a little worried. I did aerate with pump and stone for an hour (no oxygen yet). BTW it is a 5 gal batch.

 

[bradsul]

I think you'll be fine, as I mentioned 12 hours is way too soon to worry. Give it a couple more days.

 

[Professor Frink]

Frankie says - Relax (DWHAHB).

 

[alexanjm]

Alright... I was determined not to post the cliche beginner's question, but this is batch 2 and the same things appear to be going on. Here's the scoop:

Batch one was a pale ale. I started it last friday and it bubbled away and fermented down to the desired specific gravity by Wednesday. I had been concerned because it only appeared to ferment for about a day and a half, then the bubbles decreased to one every minute or so, but I left it until it had attained the 1.007 gravity. I racked into the carboy, and it has basically been sitting there doing absolutely nothing; it doesn't even bubble. It has brown little floaties in it. I figured there was a good chance that this brew was not going to go well, so I started batch 2. There was, however, a good layer of gray sediment at the bottom of the bucket, and now there is a small layer of the same at the bottom of the carboy leading me to believe the yeast did a fair amount of reproducing.

Batch 2 is a Sam Adams clone. I brewed the wort on Friday night. I made a yeast slurry out of packeted yeast with 85 degree water and let it sit for 20 minutes. I pitched the yeast into the wort which was at about 80 degrees in the fermenter. I think the seal on my bucket might be non-functional, but basically it has not shown any exterior signs of fermentation so I took a peek yesterday (after about 24 hours) and it appeared to have a nice foamy head on it; I assumed it might cause the airlock to bubble after a little pressure had built or something. Today, the whole head of foam is gone and I again just have little brown floaties.

So the concern is: am I consistently doing something wrong to cause incomplete fermentation? I don't want to waste $30 on another batch of ingredients just to mess it up. I sanitize with iodophor then rinse with my chlorinated tap water b/c it's too cold/humid for the equipment to air dry in any reasonable amount of time.
But both batches, if they really fermented at all, appear to have fermented within about 1 1/2 days of cooking. I stored them both in a bedroom closet that is pretty steadily at 68-70 degrees.

I'd love to DWHAHB but like some kind of mother I can't help but be concerned that my babies are sick.

Well I just measured the SG of the 2nd batch, which had started at 1.038 when I first brewed and is now at 1.018 so I suppose it is working, but what's the deal with these brown clumpy floaty things?

 

[Yooper]

It sounds like everything is going exactly as it should. Those brown clumpy floaties are yeasts that are globbed up together. Even though the majority of fermentation is finished, they are still working to clean up off flavors in your beer. As you can see, some remain in suspension for a while, but some drop out and fall to the bottom. The ones that remain in suspension the longest are the ones that will eventually carbonate your beer.

the hardest part of brewing is waiting. But your patience with be rewarded! I promise.

 

[Tourney3p0]

Hey guys,

I just made my first batch ever last night. I used a True Brew Brown Ale kit, but eventually when I feel much more comfortable I'd like to move beyond the kits.

I followed the instructions exactly. Once I poured the wort into my primary, it said to wait until the temperature is below 90 (even though I've read other numbers elsewhere). I waited until 80. The gravity was 1.042, and the kit said it should be between 1.042 and 1.044 (I believe, doing this from memory).

I poured the yeast directly from the packet into the mixture, because that's what it said to do. I've been trying to read other posts about my problem, and in those posts I've read that it's helpful to "wake up" the yeast instead of just pouring it directly. I'll do this next time, but I did not this time. I then waited 10 minutes and gently stirred in the yeast.

This was about 15 hours ago. I've seen no activity in my airlock. I opened the lid, and it looks pretty much the same as it did last night. Room temperature is approximately 60 degrees. Does this indicate dead yeast? Is there any way I can tell for sure what the problem is? Maybe I just haven't waited long enough, but it says I should see bubbles within 24 hours and I don't see any activity at all.

I hope my first batch isn't ruined. That would be disheartening.

 

[Yooper]

Try not to worry about it! It should be fine. It's true that occasionally you get a bad package of yeast, but you should wait 3 days or so to worry about it!

This thread has alot of info on yeast: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43635

 

[sirsloop]

Wait at least another 36 hours before you start to freak out...

 

[c.n.budz]

Nope, not dead yeast. Fermentation can take a couple days to happen and you don't want to rely on airlock activity to judge fermentation, use your hydrometer for that. I'm sure everything is fine. Conrgrats on the first batch.

 

[Tourney3p0]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I saw a couple other posts regarding fermenting time, including the one linked above. One of the posts had the same question as me, but he had waited 3 or 4 days and was told it was most likely ruined. I was just hoping to be proactive and avoid such a scenario.

 

[Revvy]

Even after 3 days I'd let it go a full week and go by hydrometer readings and not the naked eye. I've had beers that for whatever reason barely blipped the airlock the whole time, but finished fine...I figured they did they activity while I was asleep.

Sometimes just giving the fermentor a shake can rouse the yeasties. I've wondered about dry pitching yeast (I usually rehydrate) sometimes I wonder if the yeasties sometimes get water logged and sink to the bottom of the fermentor before they have a chance to start dancing.

I was worried about the fact that there was no activity after 3 days on my apfelwein. Yesterday I needed to get something out of the closet where I keep my carboys, and not wanting to knock it over while rummaging around, I moved it for a bit, then put it back. Evidently that was enough to kickstart fermentation, and it's been bubbling like crazy ever since.

 

[CBBaron]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I saw a couple other posts regarding fermenting time, including the one linked above. One of the posts had the same question as me, but he had waited 3 or 4 days and was told it was most likely ruined. I was just hoping to be proactive and avoid such a scenario.

I would disagree that most likely it was ruined after 3 days. Even if the yeasts was dead you could still pitch new yeast after 3 days and get beer that is just fine. It does increase the chance of an infection but it is still not likely.
I say give it 3 days. I've had beer that has taken nearly that long to start. However it is not going to hurt it to rehydrate some more yeast and add that to the fermenter if this would ease your mind.
In the future, rehydrating the yeast before pitching will shorten the lag time and 15 hours is much too short to tell if something is wrong.

Craig

 

[Rhoobarb]

... Room temperature is approximately 60 degrees. ...

That's a bit chilly for most strains of ale yeast. If you can bump it up to ~67oF-70oF you'll probably see more vigourous fermentation. Also, did you aerate the wort well? Makes a big difference. Yeast needs oxygen.

 

[Tourney3p0]

I'll give it a couple days to see what happens.

There are many ideas in this thread that I've read about in the other threads but the kit I bought didn't mention at all. I figured they were more for other brewing styles and if I needed them then the instructions would have told me to do so.

Thanks for not treating me too much like a newbie. I'm going to read some more advanced material on the subject and not rely on the kit instructions. Hopefully before too long I'll be buying individual ingredients and putting them together myself.

 

[Yooper]

Have you had a chance to look at howtobrew.com? I really like that online book, and learned so much from it that I bought the "real" book of the same name. That will really explain (in layman's terms) what to expect, and what's happening in your brew. I really like that he tells you WHY to do certain things, but not so over the top technical that I can't understand it!

 

[Acidjazz54]

I just made my first AG brew on Mon and still haven't seen any activity in the airlock. I poured it into the primary at around 4:00 PM on Monday afternoon.

I went out today and looked and it looked like the water inside my airlock was being suck into the fermentor.

Has anyone seen or heard of this before?

I have ordered more yeast in case it's the yeast but unfortunately it's going to be 2-3 days before I get it, is that going to be a problem?

 

[acesb422]

Being only my second batch and given the amount of time that I spend reading on this forum. I think i am starting to get this brewing thing figured out. I brewed my second batch last night and pitched my yeast at like 1030 I was worried at lunch today because it was not bubbling yet. It was the first liquid yeast vile that i had used, which i liked because it was handy, as opposed to all the measuring and preparing of dry yeast (less sanitation). I then read this forum and it really calmed me about the whole thing. I am really anal about sanitation so i know or at least hope that is never an issue. But i did what you all said i waited and it was bubbling at 600 today. I am really glad that i didn't have to do anything with it. This brewing thing is easier than you think once you do your homework. My only problem is i keep forgetting to take hydrometer readings HUH!!! I had it out lastnight and was going to take one before i seal it up and i friggin forgot. Oh well, I am doing a honey wheat that i want to turn out good, so i am planning on leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks and then bottle, just because I am not going to secondary... It should be good by then.

So these guys on here know what they are talking about. JUST WAIT.....

 

[cglkaptc]

Hi all,

I just made my first batch on Saturday, and all went fairly well. The OG was right on, and everything else went as expected.

Well this morning I checked the fermentor, and it is not bubbling. I thought at around 24 hours it was supposed to start bubbling. Does this mean that something went wrong, or that it is not fermenting?

Any help would be appreciated.

(I could just be overly anxious)

 

[bradsul]

It can take up to 72 hours for fermentation to begin depending on certain conditions. Check out this sticky, it should cover all your questions/concerns.

Congrats on the first batch! You'd better start a second quickly, that first one doesn't last long!

 

[EamusCatuli]

Yeah no worries, it can take a while but there is no reason to be concerned! Even if it goes past 72 hours you may still be okay and have options to take care of it. One day is nothing

 

[cfos]

I'm at about 1.5 days without any action in the airlock after pitching at about 4:45pm on Saturday (First timer -- using an IPA kit; dry yeast -- I rehydrated it in 6 oz of spring water at room temp for about 15 min before pitching).

I'm trying to remain patient although am considering picking up some extra yeast when I go to the brew store this afternoon -- just in case I'm still not getting anything on day 3 and yeast is pretty inexpensive. If I get additional yeast and I don't use it for this batch, how long will it remain viable? Should I freeze it (if in liquid)?


In other news, I haven't opened the lid of my bucket, but... I think I can see some krausen (sp?) at the 5 gallon mark when I turn on the light in the room. Is this just wishful thinking or can people really see this through a white bucket? Hoping for the best and thanks for all the useful posts!

 

[Yooper]

Don't freeze your yeast! Putting it in the fridge is best. It will last a long time in the fridge. They have "best by" dates on them, so try to purchase the ones with the latest date on them.

You might be able to see krausen forming through the bucket- I hope it is because that will mean it's fermenting!

 

[cfos]

Thanks for the advice on (not) freezing yeast. Not sure where I heard/read that. I'm still hoping that there is fermenting going on, but don't mind spending a fiver in case I need to re-pitch.

 

[CurtFlood]

I brewed my first batch last Thursday (4 days ago), and took great pains to follow all of John Palmer's advice in How To Brew (awesome book btw). I made an Irish Red Ale, and when rehydrating the dry yeast I used water that was about 100 degrees F. I then aerated the 70 degree wort really well before adding the rehyrdrated yeast, but I saw zero activity in the airlock after 60 hours. So...being a nervous mother hen I went to the LHBS and bought some wyeast and added that to my primary. The airlock was bubbling 12 hours later, so I'm happy to say the least.

My main question is this: Did I kill the yeast by rehydrating it at 100 degrees? I could have sworn Palmer's directions were to add it to heated water and cover for 20 minutes.

thanks

 

[sliprose]

I was a getting a bit nervous today (Tues) with an Amber Ale that I brewed on Saturday morning. No airlock activity at all since going in the fermenter. I thought I had aerated okay when racking from the kettle to the fermenter by splashing the siphon tube on the sides of the bucket. I used dry yeast, pitched directly onto the wort once it reached 75 F.

Going through my head were things like I should have made a starter, I should have at least rehydrated, I could have aerated better, so many things I should have done, but didn't....

After about 80 hours of no airbubbles in the airlock, I finally broke down and opened the bucket prepared to repitch. Sure enough, there was a ring of krausen on the sides and some still on the top - great sign. Took a gravity reading and the wort had dropped from 1.056 on Sat. to 1.022 on Tuesday night. Things appear to be going fine despite the lack of airlock activity.

Lesson learned 2 fold:
1) don't count on the airlock as a sign of fermentation
2) make a starter (or at least rehydrate)

Now I can relax and enjoy a homebrew.

 

[DeathBrewer]

don't count on the airlock as a sign of fermentation

QFE

make sure that lid is sealed nice and tight, too

 

[sliprose]

Good point, DB.

I had thought of a loose lid, too. I made sure that the lid was properly sealed during the fermenting, by pushing it down on the edges. It was a bit** to get off when I opened up - so it seemed to be on tight. Checked the airlock seating, too. Still no bubbles. Don't know what else I could do there except add a rubber gasket to the lid. Never heard of anyone doing this one, though.

Now I have 2 lids and 2 buckets, and I can't be sure that I ever had this lid/bucket combo before, so maybe this combo didn't seal well?