No Fermentation bubbles

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Tiki_Jud

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New to brewing, so a couple of questions. On batch 5 and 6 from this weekend. #5 is an extract Oatmeal Porter. The steep and boil seemed to go well. Using a 6 gallon fermentation bucket with about 4.5 gallons. Kit came with a Dry Yeast that had instructions to dissolve in 4 oz's of warm water before the pitch. Followed in instructions, but 48 hours later there are no fermentation bubbles in the airlock (temp is 68 degrees, pitched at 70). Same thing with #6, a Double IPA from yesterday. Boil went great and an OG of 1.084, the yeast sachet is an American West Coast Ale (BRY-97). When stirring the yeast prior to the pitch it was VERY gummy but eventually dissolved. Pitched, sealed, swirled the bucket a couple of times and again - no bubbles in the Airlock.
Any thoughts? Do I just wait the 2 weeks?
Thank in advance from a real Rookie
Cheers - Tiki
 
Yea you just have to wait it out. You can’t go by your airlock activity. Do you have any krausen in your fermenter? You should see a little ring around your bucket above your wort
 
Welcome to the forum Tiki_Jud.
Just checking on your yeast rehydration. Too high of a water temp (>100) can kill the yeast, so hopefully it wasn't your hottest tap water. If it was HOT to the touch, then I would repitch another packet.
Barring that, dry yeast do often take a little longer to 'kick in', but they should be quite active by 48 hours. AS both Nokie and Jag75 have indicated, you can't really go by airlock activity to determine yeast activity. It is comforting to see it bubble, but a small leak like an incomplete lid seal can give the appearance of no gas.
Now, you don't want to keep opening the lid and staring, but I'd risk a quick peak. Bubbles on surface, or a krausen ring, you're good to go. Otherwise, go get more yeast.
 
Ah, the warm water to dissolve prior to pitch might be the issue. Don't know the temp but probably around 100 degrees, dang never thought of that. I do have some bubbles if I press the lid but on my other batches I got lots of bubbles right out of the gate. I can take an OG easy through a spigot, if still high can I toss in some new liquid yeast? A friend gave me some harvested yeast
 
Ah, the warm water to dissolve prior to pitch might be the issue. Don't know the temp but probably around 100 degrees, dang never thought of that. I do have some bubbles if I press the lid but on my other batches I got lots of bubbles right out of the gate. I can take an OG easy through a spigot, if still high can I toss in some new liquid yeast? A friend gave me some harvested yeast

Actually yeast loves 100F water. It takes near 140F to kill it.

Buckets are notorious for having a little leak and it only takes a tiny leak to keep the airlock from bubbling. Pop the lid open and see if you have krausen. If you do the beer is fermenting so get the lid back on quick to avoid introducing any more oxygen.
 
For bucket leak, I use tight saran-wrap around the cover. It's usually enough to redirect the pressure to the airlock. :)
 
You can sometimes check for kraeusen using a flashlight. Darken the room and set the flashlight on the lid aiming down. You can see the level thru the side of the bucket. But sometimes the beer and kraeusen look the same and you can't tell if there's kraeusen. If you noted the starting level, you can see if it's gotten higher.
 
Thank you all for the hints and insight. Here is how I proceeded. Took OG readings from both batches through the spigot, no lid removal. The Double IPA had not moved (still 1.084 after 48 hours). The Porter dropped from 1.056 to 1.052 after 72 hours.
I decided to repitch. Used 4oz of US05 liquid in each and immediately put the lid back on as TIGHT as possible, gave a bit of swish and crossed my fingers.
18 hours later I am getting good bubbles on the IPA and a noticable Kraesuen (did not even know what that was prior to this board info), the Porter is less active but there does seem to be some activity.
Additional question - prior to first pitch but after the beer was in the fermenter I went a bit crazy and squirtted maybe an oz of Honey in the batch just because. Then the pitch. Any thoughts on if that could have been a problem?
 
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