questions/issue!

[witster18]

alrt... brewed an all-grain batch of "hal-now-brown-ale".. just your typical brown ale... my neighbor gave me some Nottingham yeast he hadn't used from about a year ago(kept in fridge)...

I've got NO action... none after 72 hours... I re-oxygenated and re-pitched a safale ale yeast... after 24 hours had very little action... maybe 1 bubble every 5 minutes...

what to do... is this thing ruined? I mean I can ck the gravity and see if we've gotten any fermentation going on, but I think I might have my first 'dump'...

depressed...

luckily other fermenter is bubblin' away as usual with my zigga-re-do wheat... any thoughts/suggestions...


will bad yeast in and of itself ruin the beer...?

 

[JimRausch]

Hmm- was the Notty an unopened packet? If so, it still should have had plenty of live yeast. If it was a fridged slurry, then I could believe there was nothing live. But dead yeast won't stop a fermentation, just sit there and do nothing(except maybe act as nutrient for new yeast).
But then you repitched a fresh packet of yeast? Should have kicked it in, unless your temps are off.
Take an SG. Maybe you had a stealth fermentation.
We can hope.....

 

[witster18]

yea... the other wheat brew is done so I'm cold-crashing them both now... I'm just gonna retake the sg of the brown ale when I'm bottling the wheat... if it's dropped significantly(anything under 1.25/was 1.059og) then I'll go ahead and taste flat to see if it's bad.... will lower the priming sugar a bit and wing it if it tastes alright... I've just already got into that thing twice, and the next time that cap comes off will be the last for better or worse. thanks for the response.

 

[JimRausch]

Math may be my weak point, but are you planning on bottling this after just 96 hours?
If the SG is dropping, then you would be much better off letting it sit for a week or better yet 2.
If it hasn't dropped,(and isn't contaminated) and you want to keep working on it, then get a liquid yeast, do a starter and pitch that at high krausen(about 12-24 hours). That'll kick it into high gear.
Good Luck. I have my fingers crossed.