No fermentation with yeast Danstar Windsor?

[darkmastiff]

Hi i make an irish red and used Danstar Windsor yeast for first time, but in four days since i made the beer i don´t see any activity in the airlock, anything, no one little bubble.
For additional info the temperature at pitching was the correct, y made a starter as always, the temperature of fermenting is nice. I know that mesure the density i can have a control of the fermentation but and i don´t have a hydrometer to mesure the gravity:cross: hehehehe.

I don´t know if this happen with this kind of yeast of really i have a problem with my beer??
any suggestion?

 

[Revvy]

Your airlock bubbling or not bubbling doesn't mean your beer has stalled or not, all it means is that your airlock isn't bubbling.

A beer may ferment perfectly fine without a single blip in the airlock. Or airlocks can start or stop or start and stop again, for a ton of other reasons, like temp changes, getting nudged by the cat or the vacuum cleaner, changes in barometric pressure, but your beer could still be fermenting fine.

Or the co2 is coming out the lid, or the grommet or the stopper. Nothing wrong with that, if co2 is getting out, nothing nasty is getting in.

Airlock activity is irrevelent. Just gravity points on a hydrometer.


The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in.

I've never EVER needed to re-pitch, and I've been brewing more than lkely far longer than you have....Take a gravity reading. More than likely you DO have fermentation happening.

 

[imrook]

Revvy is correct -- the only way to accurately measure how much (if any) fermentation has occurred is with the correct tool: a hydrometer. Having said that, I had this same thing happen to me a couple batches back. No airlock activity by 18 hours with a slurry re-pitch. That seemed very odd to me. I cracked the lid on the fermenter to check for krausen. Bango! Fermentation was rolling along. I put the lid back on and guess what? The airlock started bubbling. Being 4 days in, it's likely that your krausen has already fallen. Do yourself a favor and go buy a hydrometer. If you plan on brewing even one more batch of beer, it's worth it. If you absolutely cannot or will not buy a hydrometer, just wait 2 weeks then bottle as normal. If your yeast was dead, then you'll have several dozen reasons to get a hydrometer.

 

[Dunerunner]

My guess is that your fermenter is leaking and CO2 from the fermentation is not passing through the airlock. imrook has probably nailed it!

 

[darkmastiff]

Thanks to all for the anwers i feel more relaxed about that and for sure this weekend i go tu buy my hydrometer. Thanks