Need Some Advice

[Virginia_Ranger]

So I did a 3 gallon batch last night in a 5 gallon corny (to ferment) and am a little worried about a few things.

1. This is my first time rehydrating yeast - I made sure to use sterile water put the yeast in it at 86F let sit 15 min then stired, then poured once within 10F of the wort, which only took about 5-7 more minutes (wort was in 70s).

2. In the past I use to just dump the dry yeast in and let them fight it out and had little issues but right now I'm at 12 hours very little activity. Wort and all are hanging at 69F

3. In addition to little to no activity, the airlock has sucked back about 0.5 - 1 oz or star sans solution.

Did I mess something up / should I pull the top and look for kraeusen or will that make it worse? Also debating dumping a packet of dry yeast in if nothing happens soon.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chris Walker]

So I did a 3 gallon batch last night in a 5 gallon corny (to ferment) and am a little worried about a few things.

1. This is my first time rehydrating yeast - I made sure to use sterile water put the yeast in it at 86F let sit 15 min then stired, then poured once within 10F of the wort, which only took about 5-7 more minutes (wort was in 70s).

2. In the past I use to just dump the dry yeast in and let them fight it out and had little issues but right now I'm at 12 hours very little activity. Wort and all are hanging at 69F

3. In addition to little to no activity, the airlock has sucked back about 0.5 - 1 oz or star sans solution.

Did I mess something up / should I pull the top and look for kraeusen or will that make it worse? Also debating dumping a packet of dry yeast in if nothing happens soon.

Thanks in advance!

I would not worry at all.
I've just had a similar experience. I'm used to seeing fermentation get off to a good, early vigorous start but my last batch had almost no airlock activity for the first 24 to 36hrs. Now 48hrs in and it is going mad.

I've read so many posts on this forum and very few things get universal agreement, however this is one.
Never worry about a slow start, never worry about airlock activity (or lack of.)
Also you are so early in the process you have no need to do anything but wait for at least another 24hrs+.
You can only do harm by opening things up to look...

 

[kh54s10]

You did everything properly. The little bit of Starsan is a non issue. And 12 hour is way to early to be concerned. Start worrying at 48 hours and don't do anything until after 72 hours.

If little activity means not much bubbling in an airlock that only means that the fermentation is not yet producing enough co2 to cause a lot of bubbling, or the gas is getting out somewhere else.

 

[homebrewer_99]

It sounds like you're just a tad too impatient. Fermentation is a natural process.

Yeast goes through several stages before it actually starts "going to town".

 

[Virginia_Ranger]

Thanks for the replies and I know its early my last brew (similar style) was going CRAZY with blow off after 12 hours so I was getting a little worried about this one since that was a dry pitch and this one I rehydrated.

 

[fragged]

Agree with the others.

I had the same reaction the first few times I rehydrated. I believe the extra step just makes us overthink it, worrying about the change in our previoisly effective process. A classic case of RDWHAHB.

That said, my anecdotal observations have been that my rehydrated batches take off slower than those I pitched dry, but finish faster. Scientifically, this is almost certainly not true, but from an activity standpoint, it sure seems that way. I'm defining activity here as observed in a clear fermenter, not airlock. Both are pretty subjective, bringing me back to RDWHAHB.