Inactive 16 hours

[jamnw]

I brewed a Fat Tire clone yesterday.
Belgian Ale Yeast WLP550, liquid. Best used by: 4/8/11

The kit was shipped to my house. Unfortuneately it sat outside on my front porch, in the shade, for a couple days.

Bottom line. The yeast appears to be inactive after 16 hours in the wort.

The closest LHBS is about 2 hours.

How long will the wort last sitting in the fermenter?
I need to order some new yeast.
Unless anyone near Chattanooga, TN has some I can buy.

thanks

 

[Ace_Club]

Did you make a starter?

I know most of us would like to see active fermentation after 3-5 hours, it just doesn't happen that way. As has been stated on this forum time and again, active fermentation can take as long as 72 hours after pitching the yeast. This can be driven by many factors including making a starter or not, level of oxygen in the cooled wort, OG of the wort, etc.

Give it some time. If it makes you feel better, go grab some packages of Nottingham or equivalent dry yeast and keep them in the freezer for emergencies.

If the fermenter was properly sanitized and your process was clean, your wort should be fine for at least 72 hours. Give it time.

 

[wilserbrewer]

RDWHAHB, 16 hours is not that long, I think it will be fine

 

[Pappers_]

sitting on your porch for a couple of days won't kill the yeast unless it got really warm, like 90s

+1 on the advice above to chillax, your yeast is multiplying now, gathering its strength, getting ready to do the hard work of turning wort to beer.

 

[jamnw]

This is the 2nd time brewing this kit. First one got dumped because I totally screwed up the boil.
This is my first time using liquid yeast.
No, I did not make a starter. Only read about it after the fact.
I was surprised to see the liquid, the other kits I've ordered had dry yeast.

It's not that I'm impatient, just it might take me 72 hours to get new yeast if I needed to.
Living in the country has good and bad points.

Thanks for the advice on keeping some dry in the freezer.

 

[jamnw]

Last night at 11pm nothing. This morning at 10am bubbling like crazy.
RDWHAHB.....

Thanks for the advice.

 

[kanzimonson]

Does your homebrew shop really believe Fat Tire is made with a Belgian yeast strain? They should be murdered.

 

[twigboy2000]

Glad to hear everything's going normally. Usually, I'll give the yeast up to 72 hours to get going before worrying.

Are you familiar with the club in Chattanooga? http://barleymob.com. I know they have a lot of resources for their members. One of them keeps a local yeast bank. Check it out if you haven't already.

-chuck

 

[Revvy]

18 hours was not enough time to even begin to worry....after 72 hours is when you take a gravity reading and see what's going on. It's quite common for yeast to take 2-3 days to get going, it's called lag time.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/, and by visible signs we don't necessarily mean a bubbling airlock. it means gravity reading

It IS a sticky at the top of the beginners forum for a reason, afterall.


Airlock activity is irrevelent. Just gravity points on a hydrometer.
Airlock bubbling (or lack) and fermentation are not the same thing. You have to separate that from your mindset. Airlock bubbling can be a sign of fermentation, but not a good one, because the airlock will often blip or not blip for various other reasons...so it is a tenuous connection at best.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years.

That's why you need to take a gravity reading to know how your fermentation is going, NOT go by airlocks, or size of krausen, or a calendar, the horoscope or the phases of the moon (those things in my mind are equally accurate).

The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It's the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

So wait til you hit the 72 hour mark THEN take a gravity reading. I predict that like 99.5% of ALL the threads like this, you will have a drop in gravity indicating fermentation is happening.

 

[Montanaandy]

Agree with everything stated. I just brewed a Green Flash clone that used PacMan washed 6+ months ago. I did step up the starter twice. OG was 1.070 so on target. Oxygenated as I normally do prior to pitching expecting the normal takeoff of the yeast in 3-5 hours. Nothing. Went to sleep 8 hours later and not even a bit of Keshawn. The next morning there was a bit of krausen but nothing special. Fast forward to 40+ hours later. Nice krausen, steady, controlled blow off. Have faith in the yeast even when they test that faith.

 

[jamnw]

kanzimonson: it's not my LHBS. I purchased the kit from a sponsor of this site, all $50.74(ship inc) worth of it.

twigboy: yes, I have heard of "barleymob". I have considered joining.

Thanks for the extra information guys.

 

[kanzimonson]

Day-yum!

 

[lowlife]

Northern brewer has always had a Belgian yeast strain listed, I always wondered about that and whether it was an error with their site.

 

[jamnw]

Seriously: is that the wrong kind of yeast for that recipie?

 

[twigboy2000]

You probably want a clean american yeast strain in that recipe. If you're looking for the fat tire flavor profile that is.

-chuck

 

[kanzimonson]

Just because their name is "New Belgium" doesn't mean they use Belgian strains in their beers.

Do you taste anything Belgian in that beer? Actually, do you taste anything in that beer? It's the worst excuse for a craft beer.

 

[ArcaneXor]

You probably want a clean american yeast strain in that recipe. If you're looking for the fat tire flavor profile that is.

-chuck

I am pretty sure it's not a clean American ale strain like 001/1056/US-05, unless they do something really funky with their grain bill. They have a very pronounced house flavor (personally, I think it tastes like lactose) which I think comes from the yeast, but since I can't get New Belgium products locally, my sample size is limited. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with the American II strain from Wyeast fermented in the low 70s, which produces some of those "sweet" notes, although they tend to be more fruity than milky.

 

[BrewingRob]

Sigh. Put me in the slow fermentation camp.

I brewed a batch of Wheat beer on Saturday. The wort was tasty. It has a lot of potential. But right now, that's all like "potential energy" kind of potential. It's sitting there like a bump on a log. No krausen. No visible activity. I'm going to wait a little longer, and then take a hydrometer reading. Maybe, just maybe, it fermented while I was sleeping. However, this doesn't seem consistent with the famed fermentation of a wheat beer. People do say that the Bavarian Wheat Blend strain can have a slow start... but Saturday to Tuesday?

But let's say jamnw's beer never started. What is the contingency plan? Can you reboil the wort (say a 5 min boil), cool, aerate, and then pitch a more reliable yeast?

 

[kanzimonson]

You know what question we're going to ask, right?

Did you make a starter?

 

[jamnw]

Great question Rob!
I would like to know the answer to that also.
For me, the opportunity to brew may just pop up, or my plans may be squashed. Wife, 2 kids, dog... work....etc, etc...

The other night, all was quiet, so I brewed another batch. Finished it at 10pm.

On the "bavarian yeast". I wish I had a discerning palate to pick out those differences in food/drink.
This is the 2nd time brewing this recipie, first time they gave me dry yeast. I had to trash it, because I totally screwed up the boil. Started with 3 gallons and it boiled down to nothing by the end.

 

[BrewingRob]

Well, there's a krausen now. I hope it's from the yeast I pitched and not some other funky bug. The fermentation is very mild and steady. I'll open it again in a week.

I'd still like to know if anyone has ever reboiled a brew. My wife and I were talking about it while I cooked some General Tso for dinner tonight. What would be the problem with reboiling, cooling, and pitching?