No fermentation activity

[Brewpup506]

Pitched yeast yesterday around 6p. Used WLP-007 @ around 65-67 degrees. Aerated and set fermenter in basement at solid 64 degrees. No activity. I think OG is around .07 correct me if I’m wrong

Any advice?

 

[myndflyte]

Your OG looks to be around 1.097. Not sure where you are but 6PM means its only been about 12 hours? Did you make a starter? If not, it'll take a little bit to finally get going.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Give it time. If you did a starter, i'd expect activity later today. If not, even tomorrow isn't out of the question.

 

[kh54s10]

If you made the starter it should start soon. If you didn't I would not be surprised if you have to wait up to 3 days for it to get going. 12 hours is certainly too early to get worried.

 

[Possum55]

Dude, As someone high in politics would say, that's a "huge" beer. Give it time.

 

[Brewpup506]

Thanks for help, my first from scratch recipe second brew ever. Not used to high OG beers yet

 

[Morrey]

Just as a quick check...….make sure your hydrometer is "floating" in plenty of wort and not touching the bottom of your sample flask. Typically, I see the need to have the flasks almost full to get a good float with most hydrometers. Just put your finger on top of the hydrometer, then push down to ensure it is floating and not sitting on the bottom. Made that mistake before so I know it is possible to happen.

 

[Brewpup506]

Just as a quick check...….make sure your hydrometer is "floating" in plenty of wort and not touching the bottom of your sample flask. Typically, I see the need to have the flasks almost full to get a good float with most hydrometers. Just put your finger on top of the hydrometer, then push down to ensure it is floating and not sitting on the bottom. Made that mistake before so I know it is possible to happen.

No worries, I know that much. I just have the hardest time understanding the reading of the damn thing. But thanks for the advice

 

[Brewpup506]

Houston, we have fermentation. I need more patience

 

[seatazzz]

If you're going to use White Labs or Wyeast, for a beer that big you really do need a starter. The yeast will get going eventually (as proved above) but a long lag time can be detrimental in the long run. If you don't have the patience (or time) to do a "traditional" starter, might I suggest what I call a "kickstart" starter. Once your boil starts, take some of the wort off into a glass (preferably pyrex) measuring cup. Chill in your freezer or fridge. Once it's at less than 70 degrees, dump it on your liquid yeast, shake it up, and leave it sit until you're ready to pitch. It won't give you the "huge" starter that you would get from a 1-2 day starter, but it will at least give the yeast a head start. I do this with both my fresh dry yeast and slurries, and have had great success with them.

 

[FatDragon]

If you're going to use White Labs or Wyeast, for a beer that big you really do need a starter. The yeast will get going eventually (as proved above) but a long lag time can be detrimental in the long run. If you don't have the patience (or time) to do a "traditional" starter, might I suggest what I call a "kickstart" starter. Once your boil starts, take some of the wort off into a glass (preferably pyrex) measuring cup. Chill in your freezer or fridge. Once it's at less than 70 degrees, dump it on your liquid yeast, shake it up, and leave it sit until you're ready to pitch. It won't give you the "huge" starter that you would get from a 1-2 day starter, but it will at least give the yeast a head start. I do this with both my fresh dry yeast and slurries, and have had great success with them.

I've heard it called a vitality starter. I did it for the first time (that I recall) last brewday with dry yeast that was at least a couple years old and both batches were kicking a couple hours after pitch.

 

[seatazzz]

Thanks Fatdragon, I couldn't remember the term! It does work wonders when you don't have the time to do a full starter. All the yeast need is a bit of a head start before pitching, and they will hit the ground running, as it were. I did it myself with some yeast slurry that had just had the beer racked off it earlier that day, and had the fastest fermentation start I've ever had, less than an hour.

 

[Brewpup506]

So the million dollar question for this novice. Best way to make a starter and for how long will it keep?

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

*Note to forum admin: We could really use a sticky on making a starter*

The basics
Starters increase yeast count for liquid yeast. I won't go into detail here but don't do a starter with dry yeast. Just use multiple packets. Wyeast packs have ~100b cells. Some others (White Labs, Imperial) have 200b. There are calculators such as YeastCalc and others that will help you estimate how many cells you need for your brew and how big a starter (or how many steps) you will need to make.

The starter
At its most basic, you need a large sanitized jar (or Ehrlenmeyer flask) that will hold about 2L. Boil 1-2L of water (depending on what your yeast calculator says) and add DME to make a mini batch of wort of about SG 1.035. Observing proper sanitation, cool this to <70F and pour into your sanitized jar (or flask). Pour the yeast in and place a piece of sanitized foil over the top of jar. Give the jar a good swirl and let it sit for 18-24 hours, swirling it every time you walk past it. You may see some krausen form (not always) but you will know if is fermenting when it turns a light milky shade.

After 18-24 hours, your yeast have now multiplied and are ready to pitch. Older yeast may take longer. You can make your starter the day before your brew day and just pitch the whole jar into your fermenter when your brew is ready. Or you can make it a few days ahead of time and stick it in the fridge until brew day. On brew day, you will see that the yeast in your cold starter have settled to the bottom of the jar. Pour off most of the clear wort above the yeast, let it warm up to pitching temp, give it a good swirl and pitch the slurry into your fermenter.

Other info
You can maximize starter efficiency and yeast growth by using a stir plate (research it), which stirs the starter continuously and saves you from swirling the starter all the time. For really big brews, you may need more than one starter "step". For this, you make a starter and let it ferment out. Cold crash it, pour off the clear wort above the yeast, and pitch the slurry into a fresh batch of starter wort in your jar/flask for the second step. You can even do a third step of necessary.

I hope this helps. Cheers and good luck.

 

[myndflyte]

A pretty safe estimate for DME to use in the starter is about 1lb/gallon. So the last starter I made was 0.5 gallons so I used about 0.5 lb of DME plus a 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient. Boil for 5 min, cool and dump in a sanitized 1 gallon glass jug. I pitch the yeast in there, cover with foil and let it sit for about 48 hours. I don't have a stir plate so everytime I walk past it, I give it a good shake.

Depending on when I start the starter, if it's been 48 hours and it's the day before I'm brewing, I'll put it in the fridge for 24 hours, decant and let it warm up on brew day. If I started it late, I just dump the whole thing in there.

I did this on my latest porter that had an OG of 1.081. Started fermentation in 12 hours and ripped through it in less than a week.

 

[cactusgarrett]

To take this a step further, if you've made a starter early and have crash cooled it, on brew day you can decant the clear/spent wort in the starter, bring it to room temp, then add a bit of your actual boiled brew day wort to "wake up" your cool, week-old yeast. Not only do you get a good count, you're also pitching at high activity AND using the actual wort you are turning into beer.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

And to continue the starter discussion further, as you are pitching your starter, leave a bit in the bottom of the flask. Refeed, ferment out, let it settle, decant the starter beer from the top, pour the remainder into a small container ( preforms work well) refrigerate and use that next time you need a starter. You're ranching, now!!!