no fermenatation ???

[texas12183]

i recently brewed a west coast ipa. followed the instruction except for the fact that i pitched my first round of hops a little late to what the recipe stated. actually 30 minutes late into a hour long brew time. i pitched my yeast at 70 degrees. it is now day two and there is no sign of fermentation. any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[niquejim]

We need more info


What was the recipe?
What kind of yeast?
Did you make a starter?
What is the fermentation temp?

 

[Nostrildamus]

As well as:

-How old was the yeast?
-What volume of yeast (smack pack, White labs vial etc.) did you pitch verus how many gallons of wort?
-If the starter was made how long did you let it ferment and at what gravity?
-What was the original gravity of your wort?

 

[ajf]

Welcome to the forum.

Day 2 is much too early to start worrying. It could take up to 72 hours to start fermenting.

It would help if you could give more information, such as what sort of yeast you used, whether or not you made a starter, what was the original gravity of the brew (if known), was it all grain, partial mash, extract with steeping etc, and what was the recipe.

-a.

 

[texas12183]

the recipe was a west coast ipa it goes as follows:
8 ounces of light crystal malt
9 pounds light malt extract syrup
1 ounce of chinook hop pellets
3 ounces cascade hop pellets
1 teaspoon of irish moss
white labs california ale yeast
and corn sugar for bottling ( but doesnt really matter right now)

2 gallons
bring to a near boil with the 8 ounces of crystal malt in a muslin bag (155 degrees)
turn off heat and dissolve the malt extract
bring to a boil and and the chinook hops
30 mins and 1 ounce of cascade and irish moss
40 minutes add additional 1 ounce of cascade
5 minutes after this cover and remove pot
cold break to 90 degrees
add to 5 gallon bucket and add water to 5 gallons total
recipe states that you should fermination in 24 hours
ferment in primary for 3-5 days when fermentation declines



no starter was made since it was white labs liquid yeast.
the yeast was pitched when the temp of the wort was 70 degrees
original gravity was 1.050

does this help let me know if you need anything else

 

[BierMuncher]

Did you take an original gravity reading and if so what was it.

Have you looked into the bucket or are you just relying on the "bubbler" to tell you what is going on?

If you took a reading, take another right away. THAT is what tells you if you have fermentation.

I've had beers ferment out completely in 24 hours and if you had a loose lid, your bubbler wouldn't necessarily bubble and you may ver well have had fermentation.

More likely however, is that you just need to wait it out.

Again, use your hydrometer to determine your beers progress.

 

[DeathBrewer]

you should also use a starter with liquid yeast. it'll increase your cell count and more importantly, you'll know it's viable. then you wouldn't need to worry about it at all!

 

[Nostrildamus]

Copied and pasted in part from another one of my posts regarding fermentation:


Alright, I know this totally doesn't help you right now but please consider making a starter 24 - 48 hours before you begin your brew day. A starter not only increases your pitching rate but helps avoid situations like this one. I rinse and reuse yeast and a starter is a must because sometimes that rinsed yeast is just too damn old and refuses to come back to life. I avoid being stuck with wort with excessive lag times by making a starter. Smack packs and White Labs vials are giving you under the suggested bare minimum number of cells for a 5 gallon batch (Homebrew pitching rate should be 20 billion.

The great thing about a starter is that it tells you ahead of time that the yeast is viable AND it increases the cell count. Give it a go next time around.

 

[ajf]

I'll echo what the others have said about making a starter with liquid yeasts.
If you don't believe us, take a look at http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php.
On the positive side, you have a reasonable O.G which shouldn't delay things, and you did a partial boil so you should have sufficient oxygen to get the yeast started (assuming your top-up water was not boiled).
It seems that you are using a bucket as a primary fermenter, and they are notorious for having lids that do not seal perfectly. As BierMuncher said, you can't rely on airlock activity as an accurate indicator of fermentation.
My guess is that either fermentation has started (but you haven't seen any airlock activity yet), or more likely, the yeasts are multiplying, and you will see signs of fermentation sometime tomorrow.
If you don't see bubbles through the airlock tomorrow, try prying off the bucket lid and looking for signs of fermentation such as krausen or (very unlikely) a krausen ring that indicates that fermentation is complete.

Good luck

-a.

 

[texas12183]

ok so how do i make a starter. sorry guys this is my second brew. i know i probably ask some elementary questions.

 

[ajf]

ok so how do i make a starter. sorry guys this is my second brew. i know i probably ask some elementary questions.

Look at the top of the page.

To the right of HomeBrewTalk.com, you should see "Main - Recipe Database - Home Brew Wiki ... Brew Books"

Click on "Home Brew Wiki"

On the left side of the page, you will find a box labeled search.

Click on this box, ant type "starter" and hit return

This should give you all the information you need.

For a different point of view you could also visit http://maltosefalcons.com/tech/MB_Raines_Guide_to_Yeast_Culturing.php

-a.

 

[TheJadedDog]

ok so how do i make a starter. sorry guys this is my second brew. i know i probably ask some elementary questions.

Check out www.howtobrew.com. Palmer details the steps for making a starter pretty well.

 

[doubleb]

I don't make starters cause I've read about them and how sanitation is detrimental. You need grain alcohol, cotton swabs, and a torch (or lighter if you have no torch). Upon reading about this sanitation process I was a little turned off from making starters. However the link on Wiki has no mention of sanitation.

Have I been mislead? Do the benefits outweigh the risk of contamination?

 

[RLinNH]

ok so how do i make a starter. sorry guys this is my second brew. i know i probably ask some elementary questions.

Don't be sorry brau. Ask all the questions you need to. Isn't that onbe of the reasons why we have these Forums? Hope everything works out for your batch. And yes, always use a starter.

 

[woosterhoot]

Because youre just starting out if youre apprehensive about making a starter try one of the wyeast activator packs. My brother used the white labs without starters and he said they would take about 48 hours for fermentation to be visible. I could be wrong, but I think those vials have less cells than the activators. I usually don't mess with starters and have had great luck with them. Fermentation has never taken longer than 12 hours to be visible. All the people on this thread are correct that starters are better, but I know that its just another thing to worry about when youre first starting. Or you could just pitch dry yeast directly without a starter.

 

[DeathBrewer]

starters are easy. sure you have to sanitize, but ALL you have to sanitize is your flask or bottle. here's how i make a starter:

1. boil 1/2 cup DME in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes in a small saucepan
2. cool (in saucepan) in a small bowl filled with water and ice (you could cover with aluminum foil to reduce risk of contamination)
3. sanitize flask or bottle (i use iodophor)
4. once cooled to 75-80 F, pour into flask (wipe off water from bottom of saucepan so you don't get unsanitary water falling in there)
5. cover with aluminum foil and swirl for the next 24 hours (some people have a stir plate. i just sit around and swirl it every chance i get)

i'm swirling my irish ale yeast right now

i think i'm going to step it up to a 2 L starter tonight...just for good measure

 

[texas12183]

just to let you guys know i came home this morning from work to see the beautiful sight of bubbling from my runoff tube. so 60 hours is about how long it took. next time though i will definately use a starter