Nottingham not starting up

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fatkahuna29

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Brewed a nice oameal stout friday morning brew went well and was very efficient. the OG was 1.070. Pitched the yeast at 68 degrees and had a homebrew. I went out of town saturday morning and got back in town this morning. Went to check my fermentor and see some krausen and to my suprise there was no visible sign of fermentation. There was a dark tan layer of sediment on the bottom of he fermentor and on top just a few floating brown specs which I assume is the nottingham yeast that didnt start up. I pitched a pack of US-05 and now im waiting. Now its kind of early to have a homebrew so I am wondering if my brew is doomed. Am I going to see any problems with this brew? Its been sitting at a constant 68 degrees since I cooled it. Any answers would be great.
 
well first off krausen is a "visible sign of fermentation". second RDWHAHB. did you check the SG of your beer? if its below your OG then you have fermentation and just need to walk away for a couple weeks.
 
sorry about the typo but what I was tryign to say is there was no krausen only small floating brown specs.... so no visible signs of fermentation
 
Maybe it was done already?

Did you check the gravity?

I've had very quick fermentations with correctly pitched yeast, which were totally complete 3-4 days later...
 
if you see a nice thick layer of yeast at the bottom of the carboy i would say you either had or are about to have a nice fermentation. check your SG.
 
hmmm sounds like your right the Notti is being naughty. shake the carboy, warm it up, add yeast nutrient, maybe aerate as a last resort. this may be just a case of waiting longer for things to get going.
 
Where'd you get that pack of Notty? Any Notty pack produced from 7/2009 to 11/2009 cannot be trusted IMO, regardless of batch number recall. Maybe the place you got it from has a slow turnover...
 
what's the expiration date?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/nottingham-yeast-128940/
"We have done some internal quality checks that have shown that a higher than normal percentage of Nottingham yeast in 11 gram sachet packs from batch #1081140118V (expiration date of Jan. 2011) exhibit slow fermentation characteristics. While this is not affecting the majority of packages from this batch, as a safeguard we would like to replace sachets of this batch of Nottingham with new inventory from a different batch. If you have any Nottingham yeast with this batch number, please return it by mail to:

Lallemand Inc.
Attn: Marie Coppet
6100 Royalmount
Montreal, QC, Canada
H4P 2R2

We will replace each sachet sent along with extra sachets to compensate you for postage costs. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your support. Should you have any questions, please contact our Montreal order desk by e-mail at [email protected] .

Keith Lemcke
Danstar Yeast Sales"

there's a huge thread about this. i also rant about my bad experience with these "bad batches". liquid yeast 4 life;)
 
Did you just pitch one sachet?

If so, sounds like you underpitched and your yeast got tired and gave up .002 into the fermentation. You can try rocking or swirling the fermenter to wake the yeast back up. You could also try raising the temperature to 70. Either, or both, may wake the yeast back up, but you're best option would be to obtain a couple sachets of Notty and repitch.
 
Sorry, I just realized that you pitched the 05 on it. I'd still recommend trying to wake up the Notty and get it going with the 05, otherwise the 05 might suffer the same fate as the Notty.
 
05 went right to work... will take a reading friday night thanks for the comments guys... just hoping that lag time didnt cause some off flavors
 
My recent experience with Notty across several batches in the past few monhs is that you need to "proof" it in warm water for 15 minutes before you dump it on the wort. If you proof it, you can expect fermentation to begin in 12 to 24 hours; if you do not proof it and just pour onto the wort right out of the packet, then you could be looking at 48 hours or longer before fermentation begins. In my experience, 05 does not seem to have this peculiarity as it begins within 12-24 hours even if poured right out of the packet.
 
+1 on rehydrating. I just did an IIPA 5 days ago - 1.086 OG. Pitched 2 packets of Notty, rehydrated and it took off like a rocket. Bubbling away strong in 6 hours.

These were packets I got for free from mailing in some of the recalled ones I had. This was the fastest I've had Notty start for me.
 
took a reading this morning and its down to 1.019. Im pretty pleased but there is a new problem. the beer smells terrible, like sulfur or something dead. there are just a few little specs on top but they are dark brown. I have brewed this recipe before and never had a funky smell. Should i rack to secondary and see if it goes away? didnt taste this morning but I am going to give it a shot tonight. Maybe the lag time contributed to this?
 
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