No “visible” fermenter activity

[Razorback_Jack]

My brew, a pale ale, came out at 1.065 og, .01 higher than the target. After boiling I had 4 gallons of beer, racked into my fermenter. Pitched 05 yeast, and placed blowoff tube with starsan in a pitcher. 65 hours in the fermenter and I see no visible activity yet. It’s a bucket, and I know that you don’t always see activity in an airlock or blowoff setup, but I’m paranoid there’s a leak somewhere. How much longer should I play the wait n see game? I know starting my boil with only 5 gallons wasn’t ideal, but after my sparge I only had 3.5 gallons. I sparged another 1.5 knowing I would boil off about a gallon and end up with 4. I just didn’t want to risk low og by adding too much more water that wasn’t present during the mash.

 

[IslandLizard]

Fermenter leaks are the least to be worried about. They're very common, bucket lids being most notorious for bad seals.

Have you peeked down the airlock hole, seeing any krausen? Use a flashlight through the side.

On your low volume issue:
Good lautering and sparging is part of getting those sugars out.
Other causes of low volume/low efficiency can be excessive deadspace in your mash tun; a lot of (high gravity) wort remains in the tun.

If your recipe was for 5 gallons of 1.065 OG, also look at your grain crush, it's probably too coarse, your mash efficiency suffers. Homebrew store and even more so, online crushes, are all too often terrible.

 

[Razorback_Jack]

Fermenter leaks are the least to be worried about. They're very common, bucket lids being most notorious for bad seals.

Have you peeked down the airlock hole, seeing any krausen? Use a flashlight through the side.

On your low volume issue:
Good lautering and sparging is part of getting those sugars out.
Other causes of low volume/low efficiency can be excessive deadspace in your mash tun; a lot of (high gravity) wort remains in the tun.

If your recipe was for 5 gallons of 1.065 OG, also look at your grain crush, it's probably too coarse, your mash efficiency suffers. Homebrew store and even more so, online crushes, are all too often terrible.

Actually the recipe was for 5 gallons at 1.052 OG. I ended up with 4 gallons at 1.065 OG. Thanks for the advice, I will take a peek through the airlock hole for krausen

 

[day_trippr]

Yield is less important than ending up with something you like. If you're short, nbd, figure out why (lots of tips above) and make adjustments for the next batch.

As for the bucket and lack of activity, 05 is notorious for its subtle start-up - I wager at least half of all "Help! Nothing's happening!" threads on this site are inspired by US-05 But it's a pretty hardy yeast wrt shelf life so I expect it's actually doing it's thing right now. Also, a blow-off vessel puts some resistance on the tubing, which may make bucket lid leaks the preferential path for evolving CO2.

I'd wait a few days then do a gravity check...

Cheers!

 

[Razorback_Jack]

Yield is less important than ending up with something you like. If you're short, nbd, figure out why (lots of tips above) and make adjustments for the next batch.

As for the bucket and lack of activity, 05 is notorious for its subtle start-up - I wager at least half of all "Help! Nothing's happening!" threads on this site are inspired by US-05 But it's a pretty hardy yeast wrt shelf life so I expect it's actually doing it's thing right now. Also, a blow-off vessel puts some resistance on the tubing, which may make bucket lid leaks the preferential path for evolving CO2.

I'd wait a few days then do a gravity check...

Cheers!

Thanks! Yeah, I’m not sure how I ended up with so much less volume. Followed the calculations given to me by the Mash and Boil manual, and I’ve heard they’re fairly accurate. I will be looking for potentially better mash/sparge water calculations for my next brew. However, I’m just going to enjoy these ~4 gallons of possibly bigger beer than I intended! Maybe it will be a happy accident... I love those.

 

[IslandLizard]

Actually the recipe was for 5 gallons at 1.052 OG. I ended up with 4 gallons at 1.065 OG. Thanks for the advice, I will take a peek through the airlock hole for krausen

Sorry, I misread.

You're 13 points over your 1.052 target. That's 13/52=25% higher.
Your volume is 4/5=20% lower than your target.
Looks like the discrepancy is only 5% (higher).