I purchased a chocolate malt stout extract kit. Along with a liquid yeast. I smacked the yeast pack 3 hrs prior to pitching. The yeast pack was fully expanded when pitched. It has been 48 hrs now and no sign of fermentation. Did I do something wrong? This is my first time using this type yeast.
Where should I go from here to get it moving?
James s
Give it another 24 hours. If your smack pack swelled up then your yeast was nice and healthy. What temp did you pitch the yeast at? What temp is the beer right now? If you pitched when the wort was too hot you could have killed the yeast.
If after 72 hours you have no activity then you may want to get another packet of yeast. Maybe pitch that with a started to get the yeast going first.
don’t know if you are using a bucket or carboy but if it’s a bucket pop the lid and take a look for fermentation. An airlock is not reliable way of confirming fermintation activity.
What temperature did you pitch the yeast at? If it was below 65 or so it might take two or three days to get going. If it doesn’t, you can always add another smack pack of yeast and it won’t hurt your beer a bit. I always keep a spare packet of dry yeast in the fridge for emergencies, and even adding one of those won’t ruin your beer. I wouldn’t sweat it just yet my friend, We often make beer in spite of ourselves! :cheers:
I am having the same problem currently. The kit I used was a Brewers Best Milk Stout from a local store.
I brewed Sunday night, March 31, 2013 and checked the morning of Tuesday April 2nd before leaving for work to see if fermentation started. No bubbling. I have checked several times each day since then and havent seen ANY bubbling. I sit and watch it for 3-4 min each time.
I however used the dry yeast that came with the kit, and I mixed it in after chilling the wort down.
Which leaves me with this:
What kit did you use James?
Did adding the new packet of yeast start the fermentation?
If so, did you use another smack pack or dry?
Did you do anything unique to the brew? I added about 2 cups of oatmeal to the sock when seeping the grains and I added an extra .25 lbs of lactose to mine during the boil.
Thanks for your time.
[quote=“Hewhobrews”]I am having the same problem currently. The kit I used was a Brewers Best Milk Stout from a local store.
I brewed Sunday night, March 31, 2013 and checked the morning of Tuesday April 2nd before leaving for work to see if fermentation started. No bubbling. I have checked several times each day since then and havent seen ANY bubbling. I sit and watch it for 3-4 min each time.
I however used the dry yeast that came with the kit, and I mixed it in after chilling the wort down.
Which leaves me with this:
What kit did you use James?
Did adding the new packet of yeast start the fermentation?
If so, did you use another smack pack or dry?
Did you do anything unique to the brew? I added about 2 cups of oatmeal to the sock when seeping the grains and I added an extra .25 lbs of lactose to mine during the boil.
Thanks for your time.[/quote]
Hey there Hewhobrews,
What temperature did you pitch your yeast at? (This is critical)
Are you using a carboy or a bucket with a lid to ferment in?
The oatmeal and lactose you added would have nothing to do with any fermentation issues.
I’ve never had a problem pitching dry yeast, with or without rehydrating it first, although I feel that my fermentation starts faster if I rehydrate it prior to pitching it. That doesn’t mean you didn’t get a crappy pack of yeast, but it’s unlikely.
From your post it sounds like you haven’t seen any signs of fermentation in almost a week. It should be going by now for sure.
I added the yeast at 75 degrees.
I am fermenting in a bucket with the lid.
My latest update is: on Wednesday night removed the lid and took a reading with my sanitized hydrometer.
Original Gravity from Sunday was 1.063
Gravity on Wednesday was 1.030
Additionaly on Wednesday I purchased a packet of the same yeast, hydrated it and then added it to my brew. Still havent seen any bubbling though.
Thanks for your input in advance.
So your gravity went down pretty signnificantly in 3 days. You’re in good shape.
Seal it back up ( I presume you did so) and leave it be for another week and a half to 2 weeks. By that time you should be at final grav.
As others said, airlock bubbling or lack thereof doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Hewhobrews,
If you pitched at 75, and your gravity has changed that much, you are definitely making beer sir.
Just make sure the lid on that bucket is pushed ALL THE WAY down and locked against the seal. I suspect your CO2 is escaping out of the lid and not out of your air lock. Just my best guess since your gravity is dropping exactly as it should.
Good luck with it! Hope it turns out great :cheers:
After I remeasured with the hydrometer I too thought perhaps the lid wasn’t properly seated.
Thank you all for your thoughts and input. I will keep you posted as this batch continues.
UPDATE:
Switched my beer over to secondary tonight. I might have found where the Co2 was leaking out of the bucket/lid seal instead of going through the air lock. Thoughts?
Additionally I found lots of good stuff at the bottom. I believe this means I had a healthy fermentation occur.
[attachment=1]Leaky Seal 1.jpg[/attachment]
Looks like you’ve got good trub on the bottom of the bucket… Pretty normal looking. Also it does indeed appear you had some leakage in your bucket from the picture you posted (pictures are worth a thousand words). The good news is that if this is the case, you have nothing to worry about. Positive CO2 pressure in that bucket during primary will take care of itself and fend off the oxygen demons all on it’s own. Just make sure that your secondary is a glass carboy and has a nice airlock on it. If it is so, all is well in beerland. :cheers:
Haha, oxygen demons, I like that! For secondary I am using a glass carboy. Took a peek at the carboy a few hours after the swap last night and it was bubbling a bit. So that makes me feel good.
LOL The “oxygen demons” was the best analogy I could think of. I would no longer worry over this batch. Sounds like it’s off and running as it should. Leave that sucker in the secondary for a couple of weeks and bottle that bad boy. Let us know how it turned out!
Update:
I bottled today.
Final gravity : 1.024, the original gravity was 1.063.
Now we wait.
It is indeed the hardest part
Just tried it last night.
The good:
Very smooth and creamy feel/taste. The flavor is good.
The bad:
The overall flavor from the grains is weaker than I anticipated.
The verdict:
It was decent. Nothing mind blowing. Would probably brew again but make changes in the process.
Future Thoughts:
I kinda botched up seeping the grains initially. Only had them in the water for like 10 min before it rapidly approached getting too hot. Took the grains out, let the water cool back down a bit and then re-seeped the grains for another 10 minutes. Im not sure what that would do the flavor, but Im going to research seeping times and how that will effect flavor.
