I brewed Caribou Slobber Friday evening and it has not started to ferment, it seems to be doing nothing at all, no bubbling or anything. I realized afterward I forgot to aerate before pitching the yeast. I read through some articles and felt pitching new yeast would be a good solution. I bought new yeast but I am unsure of how to repitch it, do I go through the same process of aerating and then adding the yeast? Is this even the proper solutions to the problem? The temperate of the beer is where it should be so I felt the aeration may be the problem. I have the dry yeast and I am using the glass carboys. I do have a hydrometer but I am new to this and I am unsure of how to use it to help in this situation. :cheers:
Not aerateing will not cause it to not ferment. If that’s the case I would have 2 years worth of brews that would not be fermented. Sometimes it just takes longer to get started and I have had the occasion that I never saw the first bubble in my airlock during the fermentation process. Relax and give it a week or two then check the gravity and you will know if it is fermenting.
When you are using dry yeast it is not necessary to aerate.
Some questions to find a possible problem:
No signs of any type of krausen has formed on the surface of the wort?
What is the yeast you are using and how many grams?
How old was the yeast and how was it stored before pitching?
Did you rehydrate the yeast? If so what temperature was the water you rehydrated with?
What is the original gravity of you beer?
What was the wort temperature when you pitched?
Did you swirl the yeast into the wort?
What is the wort temperature now?
Answers to these question will help immensely.
Thanks so much for your responses… I do not see any type of krausen at the top, which having seen beer go through the brewing process before, it concerned me and made me wonder what went wrong. I used Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast, a dry yeast and it was just stored in the box the kit came in and I received it from Northen Brewer about a month ago. I realize now it probably should have been refrigerated? Could this have caused the issue with fermentation. I did rehydrate the yeast before putting it in at the temperature suggested from the brewing book by John Palmer, off the top of my head I can’t remember exactly what it was. The wort was cooled to about 80 degrees, maybe a little hotter before I pitched the yeast and I didn’t swirl it, I just poured it into the carboh. The temperature is now reading 66. As far as a gravity reading, I attempted to use the hydrometer for the first time and was slightly confused. I feel pretty dumb on that part, I can’t figure out how to do a proper reading. I know doing so would probably help immensely to figure out my problem.
Here is a link to using a hydrometer.
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.htmlTake a wort sample from your carboy for a hydrometer reading and we will go from there.
Just some info. Slobber has an OG of 1.052. One pack of dry yeast should take care of the fermentation even used without rehydration. Leaving the yeast not refrigerated is not part of the problem. (Windsor ale yeast is rehydrated in water of 86°F to 95°F.)
If I am reading it correctly it looks like it is at 1.020, and we did make a note of the starting gravity but I wasn’t sure if i did it right but it originally read 1.030. It is only at about 63 degrees right now.
It’s fermenting if your at 1.020.
