No fermentation?!?

[Revvy]

There was some Krausen remains, but not a ton. Where I put in the hydrometer was clear though.

Just to be clear, since I'm a noob, if I pitch more yeast do I need to shake it to aerate again, or just put it in an seal it?

Amount of krausen, just like airlock bubbling is one of those things that really isn't an accurate gauge of fermentation, even if you split a batch in half of the same wort, and put the same yeast strain in the two fermenters you could get two different amounts of krausen.

I can't stress this enough, visual signs like airlocks or krausen development are NOT accurate gauges of things. They can be affected just as much by environmental factors and actual fermentation... That's why the only gauge of fermentation is a change in gravity...nothing else is reliable.

No, you should not shake at this point, you DO have beer in there. Oxygen is the enemy of fermented beer.

Just put the yeast in, and WALK AWAY for another 2 weeks. Don't even look at your fermenter.

I'm sure you don't really need to do anything. I've been brewer for a ton of years, and NEVER had yeast not do it's thing. I think too many times new brewers think they don't have fermentation, and hover over theri fermenters worrying and micro managing thinks that don't need to be worried about.

I wouldn't add yeast, but at the same time I just pitch my yeast and come back to bottle or keg in a month, and my beers have all turned out fine.

But I know it makes you feel better, and it won't hurt anything.

 

[walcotteric]

Thanks for the help! I wish I could fast-forward the "experience" factor and have a bit more patience with the whole process. I'll update in a few weeks with how it turns out.

 

[emmdubb23]

Thanks for the help! I wish I could fast-forward the "experience" factor and have a bit more patience with the whole process. I'll update in a few weeks with how it turns out.

We have all wished that...

 

[Upthewazzu]

Threads like this are great! I'm a complete noob at this, having only watched the initial portion of the process at a buddy's house a while back. Once the wort went into the fermenter, I was flying blind! I had little air-lock activity and only a little krausen, so hearing that I should still be ok puts me at ease and I've made myself promise to not open the damn lid until Sunday (day 8)!

 

[pabloj13]

Not necessarily.....we can extrapolate what the OG of the batch was, simply by knowing the recipe...there's not too many beer recipes with an OG of 1.038, so it's a good bet that he has fermentation. Even if he doesn't give us a recipe so we can figure out a rough calculation, if he takes another gravity reading in 2 days, and it is LESS than 1.038, then we know he has fermentation.

Walcotteric, post your recipe...

Right. I'm aware. I meant either an actual og or a predicted one. Point being, 1.038 means nothing by itself.