I brewed a 5 gallon batch of pirates plunder India dark ale. I pitched the yeast about 48 hours ago, (wyeast 1028 London ale dated nov 14). The package never fully inflated like they usually do. Fermentation is not doing anything, not a single bubble from the airlock. It’s a constant 65 degrees in the basement.
Should I give it few more days?
What should I do?
[quote=“mak2403”]I brewed a 5 gallon batch of pirates plunder India dark ale. I pitched the yeast about 48 hours ago, (wyeast 1028 London ale dated nov 14). The package never fully inflated like they usually do. Fermentation is not doing anything, not a single bubble from the airlock. It’s a constant 65 degrees in the basement.
Should I give it few more days?
What should I do?[/quote]
That’s pretty old yeast to pitch without a starter. Brewer’s Friend yeast calculator gives it about 18% viability. I assume you didn’t make a starter? I would give it another 24 hours max and I wouldn’t be too hopeful to be honest.
Do you have any other yeast on hand? If you can get your hands on something newer or a packet of dry yeast you might want to go ahead an repitch.
My thought would be to warm it up a bit to see if you get any action. If you took OG, you coul try waiting about a week and measure again to see it’s dropping. Could be slow. Could try yeast starter and re-pitch if not dropping. Interested to see what other more experience brewers have to say also.
:blah: …one other thought. Be sure you aerate your beer prior to pitching. Shake carboy or bucket vigorously for 1-2 minutes. I shake mine until my arms are tired (about two minutes).
NB is sending me another packet. It should arrive tomorrow. I’ll re-aerate again then and repitch the new yeast. I hope the beer will not be tainted by the bad yeast.
I don’t know what type of fermenter you’re using, but sometimes lids don’t seal well on buckets and apparently on the big mouth bubblers. This can result in no air through the air lock. Have you looked at the beer in the fermenter? Is there any visible evidence besides the air lock that nothing is yet happening? I generally use liquid yeast but usually have a few packets of dry yeast on hand in case things don’t take off. On more than one ocassion over the years I’ve repitched just to be safe.
Very good point jd. Guess I kind of ASSuMEd there was more evidence than lack of airlock bubbles. Regardless I would never recommend using yeast that old without a starter.
I oxygenated and re pitched the yeast and 24 hours later it’s fermenting good.
Thanks for your help,
Matt K
