First Partial Mash & noob mistake: No Fermentation happening

[Popow]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for helping me out, made a couple mistakes when pitching my yeast last night and worried I may have blown my batch.

Was taking a crack at my first Belgian Strong Ale last night, using a partial mash method. Basically making a Trois Pistoles line by line from a recipe I found.

Everything seemed to go great until we got our wort into the primary fermenter. When I went to place my blow-off tube into the grommet, much to my dismay the black grommet in the bucket lid popped and dropped into the beer.

This being almost midnight and not having an extra grommet handy, I decided to thoroughly sanitize my hands and arms and go for a reach into the beer to retrieve it.

This is about the time that we realized we had forgotten to pull our WyYeast packet out of the fridge 3 hours earlier, to break the nutrient packet and swell the package before pitching--it was late and we decided to pitch anyway, thinking the yeast would just activate in the beer after it warmed up.

This brings me to today--I've got nothing happening in my airlock at all.

Wondering if anyone out there can help me figure out the (probably many) places I went wrong here, the reasons my wort hasn't started to ferment, and if so any steps to take to remedy the situation. My recipe says to let it ferment in the primary for 7 days before transferring to a secondary--it's been just over 12 hours with no activity so pretty sure I'll have to adjust that time a bit.

Another note--I'm keeping the batch in my basement (not a lot of places to stash it aside from that) and it's reading at around 69 F. Too cold for the yeast possibly? I have a Belgian White going in the same spot that almost blew my lid off, and that one is still going strong 7 days later...

Any help/info/advice appreciated, thanks in advance for any help!

 

[duboman]

What yeast strain and what OG?
One pack of yeast is most likely a big underpitch so lag time will be increased without using a proper starter ensuring proper pitch rate. It could take up to 72 hours for active fermentation to begin.

Temperature will be dependent upon strain, 69 is fine to start but it may need to warm up, depends

I would not worry about the grommet thing as you sanitized with star san prior to your manual excursion in the wort

AS for duration in primary, that is completely up to the yeast. Do not rack the beer off the yeast until you have reached and verify final gravity and keep in mind that some Belgian strains take off rapidly and then slow to a crawl with the appearance of nothing happening at all even though it is still working.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Do not panic until at least 72 hours without any activity. Also...airlock is not an indication of no activity...look for the krausen line on the bucket. As for the yeast packet not being smacked you will not have nearly as many cells I would think so you probably underpitched and might be smart to get another pack if you do not see activity in a couple of days. Your temp seems fine if the actual beer is reading 69 and not the air temp. If it is the air temp you should cool it to mid 60's or lower as when it ferments it will create heat in the bucket.

 

[jonnyp1980]

No worries my friend. I've popped that rubber piece into my fermenter a few times. Once I had to put my whole arm in the bucket to get it out. The beer turned out fine. As far as the yeast the people who posted above me are spot on.

 

[Popow]

Thanks folks. To answer the questions above:

OG=1.07
69=bucket reading, not air temp reading
Yeast packet WAS smacked, but probably at way too low of a temp for the yeast to start munching. More than likely the nutrients were just pitched along with the yeast.

In the future, thinking I'll keep a few extra grommets on hand to avoid having to swish around in the bucket again...

 

[unionrdr]

Pitching the yeast smacked right out of the fridge could've shocked them. They settle to the bottom till they get used to the temp. you could try swirling some of the settled yeast back into suspension. Just don't slosh or otherwise aerate it. That can be bad,although with a lack of initial activity,it might not hurt it. I've had things like this happen with temp differences between wort & yeast that's been rehydrated or from a starter. The temp difference shouldn't be more than 10 degrees.
Also,use some Starsan in a spray bottle as a lubricant for hoses & airlocks when you go to install them. This always keeps my grommets in place. But don't be a ham handed stevador when pushing them into the grommet either.

 

[stevehardt]

As others have mentioned, it's way too early to worry about the yeast. Give it 72 hours minimum, then look for krausen.

The grommet shouldn't be an issue either.

 

[firestem4]

Popow, I have done the same with yeast when I was making my first mead. I pitched the yeast right after taking it out of the fridge and smacking it. It took 2 days for it to start fermenting (I had trouble due to temperature issues). One recommendation, and one that other people have mentioned already, swirling the bucket will cause much of the settled yeast to get back in to suspension where they're more likely to wake up and get through the lag phase.

Another thing is you can raise the temperature to increase the yeasts metabolism. Just get the wort up a few degrees higher (75 degrees maybe) for a few hours.. You'd want to do this gradually so they don't get shocked from the temperature change, but I did this to my yeast and it woke those buggers up and started them fermenting. (This is with a Wyeast strain that is noted in particular for having lots of stuck fermentation issues.) A water bath makes this very easy to control. If you still have trouble adding a small amount of yeast nutrient may help.

Disclaimer: This may not be the best method but it did work me when I had issues getting my mead to start fermenting. Good luck!