no more activity

tlayton92 · Mar 6, 2013

My stout has been in the fermenter for 48 hours and the air lock has slowed to one bubble an hour temp is fine and gravity has only droped from 1.040 to 1.034 fg should be around 1.009

ChrisJPassarelli · Mar 6, 2013

Ah man, that's tough. Thank you a million for including gravity readings, because while this comes up all the time no one thinks to measure those and put 'em in the post!

That's quite low indeed. Did you aerate the wort at all? What temperature are you storing it at? If it's too low (maybe below 60 or 62?) your yeast might have just gone dormant right away.

Other than that, was the yeast too old or stored improperly? Only getting 6 points along shows pitiful yeast health. Heck, it's early enough that I would personally shake the heck out of it and repitch. You might wait for a second opinion on that, but it's sure not a case of "just give it some time". If you did have it in a spot that was too cold, then you might just warm it up to 68-70 and rouse the yeast with a sanitized racking cane to get it back in suspension.

mcbrews · Mar 6, 2013

I agree with the last post. Check the temp and swirl it around a bit to try to wake up the yeast.

I have had some that I thought was finished in the secondary, moved them to a little warmer location and they started up again.

Good Luck and Cheers

ChrisJPassarelli · Mar 6, 2013

mcbrews said:
I agree with the last post. Check the temp and swirl it around a bit to try to wake up the yeast.

I have had some that I thought was finished in the secondary, moved them to a little warmer location and they started up again.

Good Luck and Cheers

That's an especially good thing to discover BEFORE bottling. :mug:

tlayton92 · Mar 7, 2013

ChrisJPassarelli said:
Ah man, that's tough. Thank you a million for including gravity readings, because while this comes up all the time no one thinks to measure those and put 'em in the post!

That's quite low indeed. Did you aerate the wort at all? What temperature are you storing it at? If it's too low (maybe below 60 or 62?) your yeast might have just gone dormant right away.

Other than that, was the yeast too old or stored improperly? Only getting 6 points along shows pitiful yeast health. Heck, it's early enough that I would personally shake the heck out of it and repitch. You might wait for a second opinion on that, but it's sure not a case of "just give it some time". If you did have it in a spot that was too cold, then you might just warm it up to 68-70 and rouse the yeast with a sanitized racking cane to get it back in suspension.

I used oxygen with a 2 micron stone temp is 69° and the yeast were fine when I made the starter. Im thinking the temp may have droped ill give them a day hopefully they will pick up

stvo · Mar 7, 2013

48 hrs? I would leave it alone... don't worry about the airlock activity it's not a sign of fermentation, your wort is moving towards beer!! According to your gravity readings, step away from the vessel and let it be. Give it 18- 21 days min. you should be fine....

ChrisJPassarelli · Mar 7, 2013

Ah nice, you definitely did well setting it up, and that temperature should be fine. Let it keep on chugging then!

unionrdr · Mar 7, 2013

I agree. It's likely that initial fermentation finished quickly. It'll now slowly,uneventfully ferment down to FG. & make sure the temps stay in the preferred range for the yeast used. This will help insure that it gets down to the FG range for the kit or recipe.