Last night I brewed a heffeweizen which was my first time using liquid yeast. The liquid yeast got to me with the ice pack still cool but not cold. This worried me a little but I put it in the fridge until brew day. The fermenter is sitting at around 70 degrees. Although its only been around 12 hours everything is settled to the bottom and I am beginning to worry because there are no signs of fermentation.
To much lag time?
- Thread starter jeff0001
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wilconrad
Well-Known Member
Don't worry, there probably isn't an issue here. When yeast is introduced to the wort, it first gobbles up all the oxygen present and duplicates (making more yeast cells); once the oxygen has been consumed, it switches to fermenting and you'll start to see C02 bubbling off. Your yeast is probably just still in oxygen-eating mode and will start fermenting soon.
Were you using a Wyeast smack pack of a White Labs vial? If you used the smack pack, did you let it warm up while you were brewing and break the bag of goodies inside to let the yeast wake up (bag swells up)? Did you shake up all the yeast cake before you poured into the wort? These are some of the questions we'll ask if more time goes by and no fermentation has started.
Were you using a Wyeast smack pack of a White Labs vial? If you used the smack pack, did you let it warm up while you were brewing and break the bag of goodies inside to let the yeast wake up (bag swells up)? Did you shake up all the yeast cake before you poured into the wort? These are some of the questions we'll ask if more time goes by and no fermentation has started.
wilconrad
Well-Known Member
Perfect, you should be in great shape then. You've probably done a good job of oxygenating, so you will have a ton of yeast cells (a good thing). When this thing starts fermenting, look out! The delay you're experiencing right now will be offset by a barn-burning fermentation once it gets going. If you have a blowoff tube available, I'd put it on now so you don't have to clean up should the krausen push up through the airlock.
In the future, you can build up a yeast starter from your vial and you'll reduce the lag time before fermentation starts. This is really only necessary for bigger beers, though (OG 1.050+).
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