A little less than two days ago I made my first attempted at brewing a California Common. I used Saflager S-23 dry yeast for fermentation. I have had the wort at a constant temp of approximately 56 degrees to 58 degrees and so far I have not seen any signs of fermentation close to 36 hours in. The last batch I brewed was an ale that I kept at 60 degrees and within 24 hours of brewing it had started the fermentation process. My question is do the lager yeasts take longer to activate then the ale strains?
Saflager yeast
- Thread starter DmodeJR86
- Start date
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Are you going by airlock activity? I started my first lager same yeast in a pale I was thinking man nothing going on here maybe yeast was bad I had extra yeast on hand opened pale and it was working just fine. Never rely on airlock activity lol
I am going off airlock activity. The same type of thing happened to my very first batch and it turned out to be an infection so I am having some flash backs from that mistake ha. I am still extremely green at brewing, this is only my third batch since I started. So I do appreciate the quick response!
A bit longer, yes, but you should expect visible signs of fermentation within 20 hours with a healthy pitch.
Did you rehydrate the yeast? If so, with what temperature water? Peek through the airlock hole to see if a krausen is present.
Thegreatestgray
Well-Known Member
I just finished a California common that I used San Fran lager yeast and didn't see any air lock activity the entire time it was in primary. I haven't had any luck trying to figure out what's going on by the air lock in any brew. What I do is smell it if it is starting to smell like beer then you should be good to go.
