Irish Red Ale

[homebrewjax]

I bought the Irish Red Ale kit with WYEAST from you guys. I followed all of the instructions and brewed it yesterday. Before I pitched my WYEAST pack the O.G. 1.045 and the temp was 70 F. It has been over 24 hours and no bubbling. What should I do if it never bubbles? I have another pack of Nottingham dry Ale yeast. I want to know if I empty the wort out of the fermenter back into the brew kettle and bring it to a boil for 10 minuets to kill any bacteria that may have formed then cool it back down and pitch the dry yeast would that work? Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the info. I have made 4 batches of beer all from kits. I have also used dry yeast that comes with the kit and I have used white labs. All of the yeast I have used all started bubbling within 24 hours, that’s why I’m a little concerned about this one. I did smack the WYEAST pack about 4 hours before I actually pitched it and the pack did swell up nicely. I have a 6.5 gal plastic bucket with a spigot and the lid is securely on. I only made one snafu it was when I was adding water to the fermenter to bring the water volume up to 5 gallons. When I removed the lid from one of the one gallon jugs of water off it slipped out of my hand and the lid landed in you guessed it the fermenter I quickly fished it out with a sanitized s.s. spoon and the small cap did not sink it just floated on top. I don’t want to lose the batch so that’s why I thought I could re boil just to be sure there was no contamination. I plan on splitting the batch when I transfer to a secondary half I am going to leave as is the other half I am going to add 700 ml of Irish whiskey. Will any of that work and taste good? I did the same split with a rye kit, half plain half with bourbon soaked wood chips. It all turned out very nicely.

[flars]

Are you using a bucket as a fermentor? Lids on buckets don’t seal well. Fermentation may have started and the CO2 is escaping around the rim. This is okay.

Twenty-four hours is not a long lag time. During the lag time the yeast are reproducing. Don’t start worrying until 72 hours has passed without a visible krausen beginning to form.

70° is rather a rather warm wort temp to begin fermentation. Fermentation is exothermoic. When the yeast become active the wort temperature will spike. Your pitching temperature combined with the OG a temp rise 4° to 8° can be expected. Cool your wort into the low 60° range. Hold the fermentation temperature below 68° for the first few days of active fermentation. 64° would be ideal.

Nottingham ale yeast definitely needs a wort temperature below 68° or some very funky off flavors will be produced.

Give your brew some more time. If the worst happens new yeast can be pitched without doing anything else. A blend of yeasts can be in the fermentor at the same time.

[frenchie]

Homebrewjax,
The folks at Northern Brewer don’t monitor this forum much, I don’t think. You can call them directly and get help.

This forum is also a good place for help, too. Be patient and give it a little more time. Sometimes yeast can take as long as 72 hours or longer to get started, depending on conditions.

If you can, you need to get your beer temp down to around 60*F. That’s the low end of the range for that yeast, and that’s where you want it to be for at least the first 3 or 4 days of active fermentation.
If you don’t have a consistently cool spot in your house or basement, google ‘swamp cooler’, or search swamp cooler in this forum. Just placing your fermentor in cold water and covering with a towel that’s wicking up the water can help tremendously.

Did you allow the yeast pack time to swell before pitching? That will let you know that the yeast is viable before using.

If you don’t get any activity in the next couple of days, you can pitch a packet of the dry yeast. I don’t think you should reboil unless you’ve somehow exposed the beer to infection.

Good luck. And if you have more questions, don’t hesitate to post them here. Lots of very experienced brewers here ( I’m a second year brewer myself, so relatively a newbie) who are more than happy to share their knowledge.

Cheers,

Ron

Edit: Flars beat me to the punch!

[homebrewjax]

Thanks for the info. I have made 4 batches of beer all from kits. I have also used dry yeast that comes with the kit and I have used white labs. All of the yeast I have used all started bubbling within 24 hours, that’s why I’m a little concerned about this one. I did smack the WYEAST pack about 4 hours before I actually pitched it and the pack did swell up nicely. I have a 6.5 gal plastic bucket with a spigot and the lid is securely on. I only made one snafu it was when I was adding water to the fermenter to bring the water volume up to 5 gallons. When I removed the lid from one of the one gallon jugs of water off it slipped out of my hand and the lid landed in you guessed it the fermenter I quickly fished it out with a sanitized s.s. spoon and the small cap did not sink it just floated on top. I don’t want to lose the batch so that’s why I thought I could re boil just to be sure there was no contamination. I plan on splitting the batch when I transfer to a secondary half I am going to leave as is the other half I am going to add 700 ml of Irish whiskey. Will any of that work and taste good? I did the same split with a rye kit, half plain half with bourbon soaked wood chips. It all turned out very nicely.

[jmck]

700ml in a half batch, I’m not doing the math here, but that’s a little less than an ounce per beer. While I’m sure it would be delicious, I’m questioning whether it would carb correctly. You should work out the final ABV after the addition, and compare that to the yeast’s alcohol tolerance.

[homebrewjax]

yep that’s about right. I’m using WYEAST and I think it should be able to handle it. Plus I like German style with not a lot of carbonation.