I made a Black IPA, I made a yeast starter and the temp of my starter was 80F after removing it from the stir plate. My wort after chilling was about 65F. I placed my Erlenmeyer flask of yeast starter in some cool water to bring it a little closer to the wort temp. I oxygenated my wort & pitched my yeast. I have seen no active fermentation after 4 days. Can I add a yeast nutrient or do something else ensure a proper & complete fermentation?
Are you fermenting in a bucket? Sometimes the lids leak.
What do you mean when you say you haven’t seen active fermentation after four days from the time of pitching? No bubbles in the airlock?
I didn’t use an airlock, I have a tube coming out of the rubber stopper on my conical fermenter (Fast Ferment) & it goes down into a growler of water. In the past fermentation has been so aggressive it blew my air lock bubbler completely off and made a mess. There appears to be no krausen?
Take a SG reading. If there has been no drop in SG then the viability of the yeast is questionable. What is the temperature of the wort in the fermentor? What yeast did you use? Some yeasts can finish within two to three days with certain conditions.
I used an American Ale Yeast. A Wyeast smack pack, made a starter. I’ll check the gravity.
I just tried to take a gravity reading & the wort is thick almost like a shake. The hydrometer just sticks basically in the slurry. My wort temp was only around 60-62F. I’m wondering if that is the majority of my problem. I put a heat belt on the fermenter, hopefully that’ll bring the temp up.
Sounds like it’s fermenting. I would say you have a leak somwhere
Temperature range for WY 1056 is 60° - 72°F. I like to ferment this yeast at 66° - 68°F. Below 65° the yeast can produce a peach flavor. I never noticed this flavor in a IPA because of the amount of hops used, but have noticed it in a less hopped dry Irish stout.
My last IPA, NB’s Dead Ringer I let the fermentation temperature free rise to 71°. The bottled beer still needs a few more weeks of conditioning time, but the one I tasted at two and a half weeks was good. No off flavors.
Expect the krausen to last a while with this yeast. I typically primary for three weeks before the beer has cleared and is ready to bottle.
