US-05 No Krausen, slow start

[J-Drew]

Add me to the list for having a similar experience.

I usually use liquid yeast, but this was a quick brew, and with many of the comparisons I've read among the Safale, Wyeast, and White Labs Chico strain claiming the differences to be slight at best, I decided to use the dry yeast.

I ended up pitching colder than I like to (I pitched at 60F) and let it come up to about 63-64F. After 24 hours, I saw a weak bubble from the airlock about every fifteen seconds, and this is far different from my experience with 001 and 1056 (granted, I haven't pitched this cold with 001 and 1056). I bumped up the temperature closer to 68F and went to bed swearing off dry yeast for future brews and thinking, if this doesn't work I'm going to my LHBS and getting a smack pack of 1056 and adding it. Sure enough, when I woke up (at about 36 hours from pitch) the airlock activity had picked up and by 48 hours airlock activity appeared much more "normal." Even though airlock activity was never as intense as I've had with 001 and 1056, it was enough to make me happy and the active fermentation was pretty much done by day 6.

I plan on packaging this in about three days, so I'll see then where it finished and how I think it turned out.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Add me to the list for having a similar experience.

I usually use liquid yeast, but this was a quick brew, and with many of the comparisons I've read among the Safale, Wyeast, and White Labs Chico strain claiming the differences to be slight at best, I decided to use the dry yeast.

I ended up pitching colder than I like to (I pitched at 60F) and let it come up to about 63-64F. After 24 hours, I saw a weak bubble from the airlock about every fifteen seconds, and this is far different from my experience with 001 and 1056 (granted, I haven't pitched this cold with 001 and 1056). I bumped up the temperature closer to 68F and went to bed swearing off dry yeast for future brews and thinking, if this doesn't work I'm going to my LHBS and getting a smack pack of 1056 and adding it. Sure enough, when I woke up (at about 36 hours from pitch) the airlock activity had picked up and by 48 hours airlock activity appeared much more "normal." Even though airlock activity was never as intense as I've had with 001 and 1056, it was enough to make me happy and the active fermentation was pretty much done by day 6.

I plan on packaging this in about three days, so I'll see then where it finished and how I think it turned out.

Let us know how it turns out, I'd be interested to see what happened. This whole thing was an exercise in patience, so lesson learned!

 

[Mexibilly]

Same thing here, Saturday.
You rehydrated at 100'?
I always rehydrate at ~70.
I checked my rehydration water temp Saturday and thermometer read 70. I thought it was a little quick to have cooled from boil so quickly, but I pitched the yeast. Stirred with the same thermometer and it climbed to 90+.
No obvious activity, no krausen, slight fermentation based on slight pressure in bucket and bubbles from blow off tube when pressure applied to lid.
I assumed immediately that I'd killed the majority of my yeast with the 90+ rehydration water. Getting more yeast tomorrow and keeping fingers crossed.

Had every intention of turning the tail end of a business trip today into a search for a pack of S05. Luckily the brew in question was bubbling away at ~2/second this morning. Never had one take 48+ hours to get going, and it might be related to SWMBO rearranging the bedroom so the available fermentor space is next to an exterior wall in winter. Regardless, I'm happy with the intensity of the fermentation at this point (finally).
Side note: parti-gyle ales are a no-brainer for me, if I have the available grains, yeast and hops I'm doing it. But a 75 minute mash then sparge followed by a 60 minute boil while conducting another sparge/mash followed by another boil followed by sanitation and rehydrating and pitching and air locks and blow offs and clean up makes for a long F'n brew day.
Anyway, both fermentors are bubbling happily away.
Time is on my side, yes it is

 

[slym2none]

I have no experience with liquid yeasts, but I do know that Nottingham seems to like to take off at higher temps, but will ferment much lower after it has started. I like to ferment Notty at 60-62° F, and the first few batches, I was pitching into wort that was 62-63°. I had long lag-times doing this. Then I started pitching it into 68-70° wort, saw action in ~12 hours, and then I'd bring my temps down to fermenting temperature.

Maybe something like this would work for -05 as well?

 

[J-Drew]

Let us know how it turns out, I'd be interested to see what happened. This whole thing was an exercise in patience, so lesson learned!

I packaged on day 14. My OG was 1.050 and FG was 1.011 - 1.012ish, which would give me an apparent attenuation around 77%. This is exactly what I was looking for. The beer itself had cleared as expected, and I was really pleased with the way the sample tasted. All in all, I'm very happy with the way the beer has turned out so far. I was just surprised by the apparent lack of activity in the lower sixties since Fermentis's specification sheet lists the low end of ideal at 59F.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Update! I bottled the beer on Friday (1 month in primary) and FG was 1.010. I guess it was just needing that extra push. I'm starting to lean toward a bad packet of yeast. This is the exact reason why I always buy two.

 

[bebolobo]

Mine finished at 1.011 like it was supposed to and it's currently waiting to be judged. Turned out the way it should, with no off-flavors that I can detect, so all was well in the end.

Unless I get a judging sheet back that says otherwise...

 

[J-Drew]

Mine finished at 1.011 like it was supposed to and it's currently waiting to be judged. Turned out the way it should, with no off-flavors that I can detect, so all was well in the end.

Unless I get a judging sheet back that says otherwise...

I had a similar experience (finished where it was supposed to and no off-flavors). I entered this beer in two competitions and shared at a local homebrew club meeting with several members. Nobody mentioned anything about off-flavors from the fermentation.

 

[petrolSpice]

Every time I use US-05 it's slow to start, sometimes 48 hours before any krausen. If I rehydrate in sugar water around 8 hours before pitching it will usually take off within 24 hours.