Need Advice from Seasoned Brewers

[bdoubled]

Hi All

I am new to the forum and pretty green to the homemaking brew process as well. I have already made one batch of beer from a kit, Irish Red Ale and bottled it this past weekend. Sampling the uncarbonated product boosted my confidence on what I was doing seemed to be right.

Since then I have brewed my second batch, a Holiday Ale for December. Now here is where my question and situation starts. Of course all my equipment and fermenting bucket has been sanitized with star san or one step. I cooled my wort down to maybe 77 or 76 with my wort chiller and ice bath and poured over into the fermenter. I aerated with a stirring spoon vigorously for 5 minutes or so, then pitching my White Labs Burton strain yeast. I had the yeast out of the fridge for maybe 4 hours before shaking and pitching. In hindsight I know I should have made a yeast starter but rookie mistakes and wanting to get the process started took over in me. I have placed my bucket in a cool water tub and it sits at 73 degrees at all times.

Since pitching I have seen no activity in the airlock and have even opened the lid to check for Krausen. Nothing..... We will soon be going on the 48 hour mark later today. I know from reading liquid yeast can be sleepy little guys and have read some up to 72 hours before starting. My main question is this, if I decide to repitch some dried brewer's yeast on the 4th day mark, will the wort still be fine enough to do so or should I reaereate it or what?

Also, is it normal for a dark ale to have an OG of 1.07? Seems a little high but considering it possibly will have some sweet undertones it maybe about right.

Thanks for all feedback before hand and look forward to being part of this community.

 

[KISS Brew]

Definitely do nothing until over 72 hours have passed. Your beer will almost certainly be okay.

If you do end up repitching dry yeast, you don't need to aerate. When you say brewer's yeast, I hope you mean dry yeast from your LHBS, not the dietary supplement (which will not work).

OG of 1.070 sounds great for a dark holiday ale.

Welcome to HBT - glad to see another GA brewer.

 

[RJSkypala]

If you did not make a starter then you underpitched for a 1.070 beer. It will take but it will take a little longer and may have problems attenuating fully.

Check your gravity and make sure it's working and if it stops too high just add a packet of US-04 or something

 

[cmybeer]

First off, it looks like the Burton Ale yeast is targeted at 68-73* so for starting off I would get it down to 68* at least because it will warm up as fermentation begins. I like frozen water bottles for this task because they are mess free, easy to freeze and last a bit longer than ice cubes.

Secondly, one package in a 1.070 wort is way underpitched. I made this mistake for about a year as a rookie and it can make beer but often times it will end up with off flavors and a sweetness due to it being under attenuated (not completely fermented). Not sure if you want to aerate again, although it might not hurt. At this point as the yeast is waking up it should be absorbing a bunch of nutrients and oxygen to get ready for fermentation. If you do pitch more yeast because nothing is happening make sure you have enough. Check http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html to see how many packets for this batch and everyone you do in the future.

 

[bdoubled]

Hey Kiss brew, Yes, sorry I meant Coopers Pure Brewers Yeast in the packets. I almost did what you were saying and ordered the wrong thing but I caught myself and corrected it quickly. Thanks for the reply. GO DAWGS!

RJSkypala, thanks for the input, I will defiantly keep my eye on it.

cmybeer, I too use frozen water bottles to chill the wort in the fermenter. I will add a few more this evening to accommodate for kick off. Yes, I was redirected to Mrmalty.com just a few minutes ago by a contact of mine also. So would you recommend going ahead and repitching yeast just in case to prevent high gravity FG?

 

[bdoubled]

Just an update for those that want to know. I got my extra packets of dry yeast in Wednesday, still no activity in the fermenter yesterday, so I pitched 3 packets as required by mrmalty. The fermenter is going crazy now. I had to replace the airlock with a blow off hose to keep it under control. Thanks for all the help!

 

[KuntzBrewing]

Make sure you keep it cooled, I set my ale pale in a cooler full of water that is 10 degrees cooler than the max temp for the yeast. (Around 60) and throw ice packs in as needed

 

[progmac]

if you have access to a LHBS, the best thing would be to immediately pitch an additional vial of the same yeast

 

[bdoubled]

KB, I keep iced bottles in the water tub that has the fermenter in it. Just put two back in it at lunch. Thanks for the info. Progmac, I don't have a local HBS. I would have to order in and shipping would have been outrageous. The yeast packets I was able to get soonest was the coopers ale yeast packets. It seems to be working well and I am hoping for no off flavors. We will see I guess. Thanks Guys.

 

[bdoubled]

Just an update on this ale. I repitched 2 7oz coopers brewers yeast. The yeasties went ape ****. I had to make a blowoff tube to get through primary fermentation. Racked to secondary and just bottled this weekend. Sampled before bottling and this is superb. I cant wait to savor my first bottle in a couple of weeks.

 

[KISS Brew]

Just an update on this ale. I repitched 2 7oz coopers brewers yeast. The yeasties went ape ****. I had to make a blowoff tube to get through primary fermentation. Racked to secondary and just bottled this weekend. Sampled before bottling and this is superb. I cant wait to savor my first bottle in a couple of weeks.

Glad to hear everything worked out.