Stuck Fermentation/No Activity after 48hrs.......please HELP!!!!!!

[naderchaser]

Update for those of you that have been helping/following:

The dread has been confirmed. Took a gravity reading at it is still at 1.072.....my OG. I am now 3 days after pitching.

What do I do now? I don't have access to a LHBS, and used both my vials of WLP001 on this guy. Do I repitch the same yeast strain? Would it hurt the profile of the beer to use a different strain?

Ahhhhhh!!!! So frustrating to have two identical recipies turn out so differently when the exact same procedures were followed. I even raised a few points in efficency with this batch.

The wort from this sample was sooooo yummy.

 

[November]

if you have on hand or have ready access to dry yeast like nottingham or US-05 I would rehydrate and pitch that.

 

[rycov]

I always keep so5 on hand for instances like this. it will come out different with a different yeast, but should still come out well. what yeast did you use/ are you going to try now?

 

[naderchaser]

I used 2 vials of WLP001, and i'd like to stick with that but I don't have quick access to any, or any yeast for that matter. Looks like i'm going to have to overnight something. This is turning into a very expensive 5gal batch.


EDIT:
I just found one of the vials I used and the expiry says "use before Oct 2011".

I'm baffled as to why this brew won't take off.

 

[statseeker]

Have you tried rousing the yeast and oxygenating again? It could be that they dont have any oxygen to aid in reproduction. If there's been no fermentation then there is no danger in oxidizing it. I would try that and try using US-05 before even thinking about dumping it.

 

[COLObrewer]

. . . . . . I'm baffled as to why this brew won't take off.

I'm not surprised, it's only been 3 days on an underpitched brew (Should have had almost 3 vials without a starter), your yeasties are building a few billions more buddies to tackle the job at hand, you might try swirling it a little, but I would simply wait a few more days.

 

[CidahMastah]

I agree. As I said earlier - I have waited as much as 5 days for an underpitched, or weak old washed yeast (low viability) pitch to kick in. I would still wait. Worst case if you can just order some wyeast 1056 or wl001 and some safale 05 online. When it gets in pitch it. You will have plenty of other beers that use this yeast anyway.

Lesson learned - keep a couple packets of dry yeast kicking around.

If it were me, I would wait until 5 full days have transpired. To have no yeast in two vials of non expired WL vials seems impossible.

 

[Poobah58]

Give it a gentle swirl every few hours until it takes off. And it will take off!

 

[ArcaneXor]

As long as your sanitation was good, there's nothing to worry about. A recent brew of mine took five days to take off due to a bad batch of yeast, and it still turned out great. Next time, make a starter though!

 

[naderchaser]

Thanks for the replies and input all. After I took a gravity reading last night and saw that there had been no active fermentation yet, I went back down a few hours later to check on it, and it was finally bubbling a little bit in the blowoff tube......showing signs of active fermentation for the first time in 3 days.

I'll take another gravity reading this afternoon and post.....for those of you that care to follow. Cheers!

 

[CidahMastah]

Thanks for the replies and input all. After I took a gravity reading last night and saw that there had been no active fermentation yet, I went back down a few hours later to check on it, and it was finally bubbling a little bit in the blowoff tube......showing signs of active fermentation for the first time in 3 days.

I'll take another gravity reading this afternoon and post.....for those of you that care to follow. Cheers!

Looks like we might not all be liars about brewing anyway. Sounds like you are off and running. Good luck

 

[naderchaser]

Sooooo, here I am 5 days after pitching, and i'm still at my OG of 1.072. I've tried raising the temp to 72 and swirling it a bit every few hours to help with suspension. It's stuck.

I need to re-pitch but I don't have a LHBS in town. I have, however, located a few packs of Danstar Nottingham. Would this be an acceptable/comparable strain to pitch onto (2) vials of WLP001 to jump start them????

I can't believe that 2 vials of WLP001 would both be dead, but they sure aren't coming to the party. :-( My sanitation and other brewing practices were the same as the other identical batch, but this one is DOA.....for now. Nottingham to the rescue??????

 

[_JP_]

I need to re-pitch but I don't have a LHBS in town.....

Nottingham to the rescue??????

Doesn't sound like you have much of a choice. You should be happy with the Nottingham once it gets going.

 

[CidahMastah]

I think nottingham is slightly more attenuative and not quite as clean as WLP001 (some more esters) - but darn close. But like JP said, not much of a choice. I think you will be happy with it.

danstar webstite

1. High attenuation, reaching a final gravity near 1008 (2°P).
2. The aroma is slightly estery, almost neutral and does not display malodours when properly handled. Because of flocculation, it may tend to slightly reduce hop bitter levels.

 

[statseeker]

I agree. Notty should be a good choice in substitute of US-05 or a good vial of 001.

 

[CidahMastah]

I agree. Notty should be a good choice in substitute of US-05 or a good vial of 001.

For future planning, try to keep a bag or two of each Safale 05 and Safale 04 on hand. Safale 05 is sorta like the dry version of WLP01/wyeast 1056. Safale 04 will cover you for browns, stouts, english styles, etc. I like s04 in stouts, but given that I wash my yeast and have a big backlog of the liquid yeast, my dry packets will likely expire before I use them.

 

[passedpawn]

Sooooo, here I am 5 days after pitching, and i'm still at my OG of 1.072. I've tried raising the temp to 72 and swirling it a bit every few hours to help with suspension. It's stuck.

I need to re-pitch but I don't have a LHBS in town. I have, however, located a few packs of Danstar Nottingham. Would this be an acceptable/comparable strain to pitch onto (2) vials of WLP001 to jump start them????

I can't believe that 2 vials of WLP001 would both be dead, but they sure aren't coming to the party. :-( My sanitation and other brewing practices were the same as the other identical batch, but this one is DOA.....for now. Nottingham to the rescue??????

I'd be quick about it. Wort sitting for 5 days at near 70F is going to breed "stuff". There's always bacteria, no matter how good your sanitation is, and they are always multiplying. You're gonna lose the race here if you don't get some yeast in there.

 

[naderchaser]

Ya, I'm starting to get worried about infection as it has been sitting so long, even with good sanitation.

Should I pitch 1 or 2 packs of Nottingham? Initially, i'm thinking about just sprinkling 2 packs into the carboy, and not rehydrating. I can see the cake from the 2 vials of 001 just sitting on the bottom of the hop trub, so i'm hoping that by sprinkling a couple packs of Nottingham, it will awake the 001.....and if not 2 packs of should be enough to get it going one way or another.

 

[CidahMastah]

I would rehydrate for 5-10 minutes water at 90-100F. Pitch both packets since your gravity is 1.072.

rehydrating gets your yeast active so they can get to work ASAP (important to get this ferment going ASAP).

just curious, can you see the yeast in suspension in the wort? Right before take off I notice on my bigger brews, lots of yeast in suspension, and lot of times they are slowly moving upward if you look at the with a flashlight. (I would still pitch the dry yeast - just curious)

 

[naderchaser]

That's the problem, there is nothing in suspension. The yeast cake grew for the first 2 days, but now the cake is ~1/2" thick on the bottom, sitting on the trub.
It looks now how my last batch (identical) did when it was finished after 3 weeks. The yeast looks like it is spent and just sitting on the bottom.

 

[_JP_]

Ya, I'm starting to get worried about infection as it has been sitting so long, even with good sanitation.

Why not reboil it? You'll lose some hop aroma, but you can add some fresh hops post-boil again.

If you have none (as I suspect you do based on the yeast situation), toss some hops in the secondary after a week or 2. That should give you time to order some.

 

[Jklinden]

+1 for hydrating the yeast.

 

[passedpawn]

+1 for hydrating the yeast. It's a process bakers call proofing... No proof no bread, no proof no beer... That is if it doesn't get going with a dry pitch

No, brewers don't (normally) proof yeast. Proofing requires sugar.

Rehydrating is simply adding water. It doesn't give any indication whether the yeast is viable or not.

Smack packs are proofing mechanisms, and it's why I'll always buy Wyeast over White Labs liquid yeast.

 

[COLObrewer]

That's the problem, there is nothing in suspension. The yeast cake grew for the first 2 days, but now the cake is ~1/2" thick on the bottom, sitting on the trub.
It looks now how my last batch (identical) did when it was finished after 3 weeks. The yeast looks like it is spent and just sitting on the bottom.

Personally, I'd still wait, but that's just me I guess. BTW have you checked your hydrometer accuracy? Just a thought, maybe it slipped. Anyway, I'd wait, if it didn't get infected with the saccharomyces, I'd try to infect it with some other animal or just feed it to the oud bruin vat