Four days for fermentation to kick in?

[KennyR]

The OG was 1.064 (target was 1.06) and I didn’t use a starter, just pitched a vale of White Labs liquid yeast. After 2 days, I pretty much gave up on the beer and order some dry yeast from the internet. Then BAM! The fermentations starts 4 days after initial pitch and is going nuts today (5 days after the pitch).

My suspicions are shipping liquid yeast to South Florida in August isn’t the best of ideas. The trip may have killed off a lot yeast cells or something. I also used distilled water which I found out post-pitch doesn’t have enough calcium for the yeast.

I’ve since converted an old olive oil bottle into a starter vessel, hopefully this is the last time I see a delay like this.

Anybody else seen fermentation take almost a week to kick in? That drives in the meaning of RDWHAHB. I assume it’s still good, the beer is going to be racked and bottled regardless.

 

[BrewDey]

I had to wait a few days with White Labs European Ale. Seems like White Labs take a lot longer than Wyeast smack packs if you're not using a starter.

 

[Bobby_M]

That gravity is too high for a direct pitch without a starter and you experienced exactly what i'd expect. You might get away with it or you might have an incomplete ferment depending on whether or not the O2 level was high enough or not.

 

[KennyR]

Well here is hoping this doesn't turn into an expensive lesson of "Always use a starter". If it does it does....RDWHAHB

here is a pix of the fermentation.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

"Oh my god! Kenny killed the yeast! You bastard!!" I mean... umm... use a starter...

 

[MriswitH]

Without using a starter and dumping a vial into my Honey Butt Brown, it didn't start for 3-days. I would say you're right on par if you did the same thing.

 

[KennyR]

One other weird thing is I was aiming for a SRM 7. It’s looking kind of dark for a 7.
How do you brew lighter color beers?
This beer has 7lbs of light LME and 1/2lb of light DME
1 lbs of Crystal 15L
1 lbs of Light Munich

Steeped for 30 minutes boiled for 60.
What’s the trick for a lighter colored beer?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

One other weird thing is I was aiming for a SRM 7. It’s looking kind of dark for a 7.
How do you brew lighter color beers?
This beer has 7lbs of light LME and 1/2lb of light DME
1 lbs of Crystal 15L
1 lbs of Light Munich

Steeped for 30 minutes boiled for 60.
What’s the trick for a lighter colored beer?

Do full boils. Extract, esp with a partial boil, will always carmelize and darken during the boil.

 

[KennyR]

Thanks for the input Bernie!
Just to clarify:
60 minutes at 212 degrees is a “Partial Boil”?
I should really crank up the heat and get a roaring boil “Full Boil”?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Thanks for the input Bernie!
Just to clarify:
60 minutes at 212 degrees is a “Partial Boil”?
I should really crank up the heat and get a roaring boil “Full Boil”?

No, a full boil is boiling all five gallons of wort instead of, say, 2 gallons and then topping off with tap water.

 

[IndyPABrewGuy]

Thanks for the input Bernie!
Just to clarify:
60 minutes at 212 degrees is a “Partial Boil”?
I should really crank up the heat and get a roaring boil “Full Boil”?

Wrong way to think about it. Partial boil is when you only boil some of your wort, not all of it. For instance, only boiling 2 gallons then adding 3.5 gallons to make it a five gallon batch (don't forget about evap rates!!!!).

Your other option is to add part or most of your extract in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the boil. This will give it less time to carmelize, but still enought time to kill all the badies. I, personally, don't subscibe to this, but a lot of people that frequent this forum do. The main reason I don't is because it's a pain to calculate. and I hate numbers to begin with, hence the reason I have brewing software.

Plus, you're right now you're looking through a lot of beer . . . a lot more than will be in a glass. Granted, what you have is probably not 7 SRM, but I"ll bet it's not too terribly off. But who knows, I don't have my spectrometer with me at work.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew.

Oh, and the whole yeast taking a while to start, no biggie, you should be ok. It's the distilled water that may thwart you in the end. If your gravity's a bit high after two weeks, pitch the dry yeast you ordered.


Cheers,

 

[KennyR]

A yes, a propane burner and big old pot!
There is no stopping it and its just a matter of time. I’m going to brew a few more extract beers for experience, but Knowing carmelization of extracts effects beer color pretty much dooms me to move to all-grain. Thanks a lot Bernie

 

[DeathBrewer]

get rid of the lme and use only dme if you want to lighten the color. use only a pound or two at the beginning of your boil and add the rest at the end. that will help tremendously, even if you still do a partial boil.

 

[Gregg Meyer]

I am currently working up an octoberfest. I have done about 12 sessions so I'm pretty green. I have a friend with 30+ years exp. as a mentor. He taught me how to do extract without a kit and All Grain also. This is my first octoberfest kit and it did not start fermenting for 3 days either. I asked and was told to either wait 2 or3 more days or just get some dry yeast and thrower in, and shake it up. . . I did the latter and I now have a full feremnting beast on my hand. I was told some european ale yeasts will ferment and be done quickly befor you even know it. The thing would be to take a sample and see if it has fermented already. I just used my limited observatioon and it looked like there was no real fermentation occuring. I also did not want to risk contamination by taking a sample. I know sterilization of clean tools is the key but heh I just didn't want to risk this atch and it just did not look like a damn thing was happening. My wort looked like 7 day old ice tea in the fridge, dead. Now it has a wonderful orange color and the krazen is about an inch deep.

Gregg,

 

[KennyR]

Just a note to any other noobs reading this thread. In the pix on page one, note the use of the blow-off tube in the smaller 3/8th point instead of the larger ½ point, Yaaaa Use the larger ½ point. Luckily the carboy didn’t explode, but there is a bit of a mess in my fridge.

This is batch #3, they say by batch #5 you have the process down RWDWHAHB!