Fermentation

[dmself72]

I just made my first batch of homebrew. I followed the instructions and added the yeast as directed. It's been about three hours and I have not seen any bubbling in the airlock. Is this normal? Or is it possible that the yeast is bad or I have killed the east?

 

[hepcat]

Relax and have a home brew. lol. But really, relax. Can be any where from 12 to 24 hours before yo see any airlock activity. Or, give more info re recipe, process and you will get more specific suggestions. Cheers.

 

[davekippen]

Im sure the instructions said to wait a while. I doubt you would ever see activity @3 hours. Give it 24 at least.

 

[Calder]

If you see activity within 3 hours, I would say you probably over-pitched. I like to see my fermentations start between 8 and 12 hours.

When I first started, it was not unusual to wait up to 24 hours to start. Some people here will tell you to wait up to 72 hours before worrying.

The initial phase is a lag phase where the yeast are reproducing to get the right population to ferment the beer. You want this to take a little time; too quick and you don't get enough new yeast to do the job.

Did you aerate well? If not, go do it now before fermentation really gets going.

 

[dmself72]

It sounds as if my patience needs to be a little stronger. Thanks to all for the helpful advice for this novice!

 

[CBXBob]

I've had buckets that didn't have a great seal with the lid produce no airlock activity, but I could see the krausering (spelling?) going on, two weeks in the primary, all was fine. Final gravity at correct level, then bottled. I do enjoy seeing the blow off activity,(I always use a blow off tube to be on the safe side) so now I make sure there is a good seal bucket to lid. Half the fun of home brewing is watching the bubbles:

 

[PKLehmer]

I only get good bubble activity about one out of three brews. Don't worry about it if you never see bubbles. In 5-7 days transfer to secondary and take a gravity reading, if it hasn't dropped at all, by then pitch fresh yeast and hope for the best.

 

[Brewitt]

Just to clarify, the only time you should expect to see airlock activity within a few hours of pitching is when you make a large starter culture for a high gravity beer. In that case the yeast is already actively growing and has recently been fermenting so it just kicks right in. Otherwise, just pitching dry yeast or directly pitching a vial of liquid yeast, it like folks say, a day is completely reasonable. Although it is not critical, once you have a few brews under your belt, you might go the starter route. Getting a fermentation going quickly is always good insurance against infection, etc.

 

[Czm]

+1 on starter. Last brew (few days ago) I pitched a starter. It's about done and then I'll start to drop temp to 60ish.

 

[homebrewdad]

The fastest I have seen activity was five hours, with a starter, with an insane yeast strain. It can take three days... don't worry about three hours.

Not too long ago, I wrote an article for new homebrewers, you might find it useful: Common Sense for Homebrewers.

Patience is probably the number one skill you can learn.

 

[dmself72]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Everything seems be working fine now

 

[chalmer9]

What did you make?

 

[dmself72]

It's an IPA from Malt extract. Nothing too complex.

 

[chalmer9]

Sounds good. One of my first extract batches was an IPA from my LHBS.

It's still one of my favorites to date! (started brewing last September).

 

[Hops4life]

What was the yeast?

I just did a wheat that I used sb-06. I pitched dry straight into cooled wort at about midnight last Sunday and Monday at 6 am I already had pretty good activity. Seemed to slow by fri/sat I have had it at about 70 all week and today actually saw some more bubbling.

Have heard real good things about this yeast but this has far surpasses what I expected.