No activity after 40 hours

Yeast & Fermentation
1

So, I brewed an irish draught ale, and was kind of in a rush. I activated the smack pack about three hours before I pitched, and I thought there was a little expansion, but I wasn’t sure.

24 hours later, there wasn’t any activity whatsoever, so I dumped a jar of yeast that I had from a previous batch in. Now, 40 hours after brewing, I still have no airlock activity, and no kreusen forming on the beer.

I’m thinking that the little mini fridge that I keep my hops and yeast in got too cold and froze out my yeasts (they weren’t frozen, but I noticed that a bottle had a bit of slush in it about two weeks ago, and so I turned up the temperature a little), because there’s no way both of them should have failed.

What do I do? I can go buy more yeast, if I need to, but is the beer even salvageable at this point? By the time I pitch new yeast, it will have been 48 hours after brewing. Did I just make five gallons of sweet tea?

2

Swirl & warm it up is about all there is to do at this point. Hopefully you’ll wake up those lil yeasties… If your sanitation is good you should be okay. Oh, not to be cliché, take a hydrometer reading just to be sure. :wink: Cheers!!!

3

Buy a pack of S-04 or US-05 immediately and throw it in. Crisis averted.

4

Good call! I always keep a pack of dry yeast on hand, in case of emergency, but I’ve had such a run of good luck that I had completely forgotten about it. (However, the dry yeast also had a best if used by date of Nov. 2011, so it’s slightly expired.)

5

even after the expiration date the yeast is still good, just might loose a few cells.

good luck :cheers: