Waiting on Fermentation to start

[BigAl420]

I just cooked up a batch of Cream Al. Cooled Wort to about 60 then pitched California Ale Yeast WLP001. It is now 17 - 18 hours later and no fermentation signs at all. I did a couple things a little different this time and was wondering if I messed something up.

1 - I took the yeast container out of the fridge and put in a warm heating pad. Warm - not Hot. typically I leave it in the window to warm up during the boil process but no sun yesterday

2 - Turned a Freezer into a temp controlled Ferm Chamber to keep everything stable at 64 degrees instead of fighting to keep it at 68/70. The IPA is doing fine in there but it was started a few days ago and was much warmer when yeast was pitched and fermentation started.

Since this is a first for me to start my beer in a cooler temperature am I over-concerned? Thanks in advance everyone! _Recipe below_

6# DME
5oz Dextrose (5 min Boil)
1oz Cascade - 60 mins boil
1 oz Sazz Hops 10 min Boil

 

[Kahless]

According to this page the optimum range is 68-73F. It's quite a clean yeast so hopefully it would still make a neutral cream ale at 68. Once fermentation is under way and some heat builds up from the fermentation itself, having it at 64 in the chamber should be enough but that pitching temperature could lead to a longer wait as you say.

It should be fine, not a risk I would take but with everything being clean and the yeast slowly going at it it may just be taking a bit longer than normal. Sometimes the signs of fermentation don't even appear for 70+hours.

If you are worried about it you could slightly increase the temperature or gently rotate the bucket to swirl some of the more tired yeast back into the game. edit:looking at this thread it seems that WLP001 is fine for that temperature range (I guess you already knew this!)

The thing about the heat pad seems fine to me, so long there was a slow and steady supply of heat to the yeast. Rapid temperature changes can negatively affect yeast and you can end up with mutant yeasts that cannot multiply. To check on that front, You could take some water out of the fridge, put it into the same vessel, with a thermometer inside and monitor the temperature in the vessel while it is on the heat pad. If it is still cold in the middle of the water and more than 10 degrees (C, not sure about F) warmer at the bottom at the same time, then this could be a problem.

 

[BigAl420]

Thanks for the informative reply! Im worried that if I let it warm I may jeprodise the flavor as this is such a light and tasty beer that any off esters will come through pretty noticablely. I should probably just leave the house for the day so I cant do anything to it and see how it is tonight lol

 

[IL1kebeer]

The heating pad likely did more harm than good. It probably didn't kill your yeast but they don't like fast changes in temperature. They might have gotten stressed from that and it might be why they are going slow. Additionally, if you didn't make a starter and you pitched cold at 60F, then your fermentation will probably take a bit longer to take off.

I bet it's a combination of the heating pad stressing the yeast, no starter, and a pitch on the cold side. Relax though, if your yeast were viable they will eventually take off.

 

[BigAl420]

Thank u. I am patiently waiting untill tomorrow at 66 degrees. Then I'm repitching. Only reason is this is for my wedding on May 3rd and its too close to comfort especially with bottle conditioning

 

[BigAl420]

After doing a gravity reading to confirm that no fermentation had taken place I repitched with Safale us-05 dry ale yeast around 12pm and left the fermentation bucket out of the cooler. After I returned home at 7pm the airlock was bubbling nicely so I have put it back into the cooler to bring it down to 64 from 68 slowly. Not sure what wentb wrong, i must have over heated the yeast before pitching originally. I will be making starters from now on. Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

After doing a gravity reading to confirm that no fermentation had taken place I repitched with Safale us-05 dry ale yeast around 12pm and left the fermentation bucket out of the cooler. After I returned home at 7pm the airlock was bubbling nicely so I have put it back into the cooler to bring it down to 64 from 68 slowly. Not sure what wentb wrong, i must have over heated the yeast before pitching originally. I will be making starters from now on. Cheers!

Yeast love being warmed- but being cooled stresses them.

You underpitched the first time, so the extra yeast could be helpful but messing around with the temperature and repitching too quickly is not very good practice for great beer.

Next time, cool the wort to 60-65, and pitch the proper amount of yeast at that temperature (generally, with liquid yeast you need two packages or an appropriate starter). It may take 36 hours for obvious signs of fermentation to occur. Do NOT heat your yeast- ever! Pitch it out of the fridge if you have too, as going from cold into warmer wort is ok if not ideal, and definitely 100 times better than heating yeast and pitching it into cooler wort.

Healthy yeast is what makes a great beer, so pamper them next time!

 

[BigAl420]

Ill be doing starters from now on