Did my first Belgian Tripel this past weekend all grain. O.G. was 1.074. pitched yeast at 70* Monday and have not seen any activity. I agitated and stirred 2x and still nothing. Any ideas on what to do? This was a Christmas gift from my son, yeast was kept in fridge.
Did you make a starter with the yeast? What was the OG of your brew?
Edit: I’m an idiot. ignore my second question 
I’m going to guess you didn’t make a starter. Don’t worry. You should have made one, but you’ll still get beer. The yeast is multiplying, trying to grow enough to ferment your wort. You really don’t need to worry until around 72hrs or so. Right now, you’re around 48hrs, so you have another day to start worrying. Give it until tomorrow and see what happens. If nothing is going by tomorrow night, get another pack of yeast and pitch. I’m willing to bet the next time you check (after work tonight?) it’s doing it’s thing.
Also, do you know what the date on the yeast was? How about aeration, did you aerate before pitching? I’m guessing its an underpitch. During the lag phase (the time between pitching and when you see activity) the yeast is building up its colony and reproducing to attack the job of eating sugars. The more healthy yeast you pitch, the less it needs to reproduce and the shorter the lag time. If that is in fact the case, I’m predicting the yeast will get pooped out and you will end up with a pretty sweet beer.
I have to disagree with this. When I first started brewing, I didn’t make starters so I’m sure I routinely under pitched. Never had an attenuation problem. I’m willing to bet it will attenuate just fine. Maybe not optimal conditions, but the yeast will do their thing. Having said that, it’s still good practice to pitch enough healthy yeast.
I have to disagree with this. When I first started brewing, I didn’t make starters so I’m sure I routinely under pitched. Never had an attenuation problem. I’m willing to bet it will attenuate just fine. Maybe not optimal conditions, but the yeast will do their thing. Having said that, it’s still good practice to pitch enough healthy yeast.[/quote]
Were any of those 1.074 OG beers? I’ve never worked with 3787 but it appears to be a pretty decent attenuator. I’ve had a few under-attenuations that I believe was due to underpitching, but I suppose it could have been due to other factors including wort fermentability and lower ferment temps.
Thanks for the input guys. This is my first all grain big beer. I will give it another day or so. I did notice about an inch of yeast at bottom of carboy. Maybe the yeast is building up. I agitated again b4 I went to work. Problem now is I wont get to it til friday. I didn’t catch the date on the yeast package. It was purchased at northern brewer so I’m hoping it was ok. I will post again by Friday and let u know . Thanks for the help.
I used 3787 last year. I pitched the smack pack to a patersbier 1.058 OG at 61 degrees, it dropped to 59 overnight and I had to warm it up to get it to 64 before fermentation kicked off. I think it still may have taken 48 hours.
After I kegged the patersbier I poured a Belgian dark strong ale 1.084 OG onto the entire yeast cake, aerated it and it was off to the races in a couple of hours. There was krausen up into the neck of the 6.5 gal carboy the next morning.
The patersbier is a great summer beer, light and fruity. The dark strong has amazing flavors that were really in your face when it was young. It’s starting to round out now and is really good.
You probably should have made a starter but it will be good beer and now you’ll know for the next time.
I’m brewing the patersbier in a couple weeks and will follow it up with the dark strong again. I may only use half the yeast cake this time. Save the other half and do a duvel or something else to cellar.
You really should make a starter for those strong belgian ales.
10/4 on the starter. Never done one b4. Should that be the standard for all brews or just the bigger ones? Also, if I see that it hasn’t started up, what should I do. And what is a better temperature for that beer to ferment?
Good news! Started bubbling this morning. Forgot to mention I had moved it to a little warmer area b4 I left for work yesterday as well. Thanks for all the info. This is a great source of information and learning. I’ll do the starter next time as well.
I do a starter for any beer where i am using liquid yeast from a lab (smackpack or vial). I also do it if I am using harvested yeast that is either slightly old, or too small a volume for what I’m brewing.
I don’t do it for dry yeast, or if I am re-pitching from an active fermentation within 2-3 weeks (this is longer than most recommend but it’s worked for me).
