Nothings happening with my Caribou Slobber

It’s been 48 hours since my brew day, and there is no action what so ever going on in my air lock. This is my very first brew session and I followed the procedure to a T. The adhesive thermometer is reading 72 degrees. When should I start freaking out and end my short lived brewing career :?

Carboy or Ale pail/bucket?

Did you check to make sure the lid is completely on? If you push the middle of the bucket lid, does it bubble? Could also be a leak around the gasket where the airlock inserts.

72 is pretty warm, the heavy activity could have happened very quickly (but usually over the course of at least a day, even @ that temperature)

Just remember that airlock activity does not equal fermentation activity. All it means is that gas is escaping from the vessel. Check those quick-fixes and leave it for another week.

Did you get a hydrometer and sample vial to test gravity? Test it in a week.

One last question, if you followed the directions to T, I’m guessing you chilled the wort down, and pitched the yeast when it was chilled below 70 degrees?

I brewed a Rye Ale a week ago and didn’t see any airlock activity for over a day either. It was a few days after the the really heavy fermenting starting and finished. Now it’s down and it’s just chillaxin.

I’m using a ale pale. I did double check the lid on the bucket as well as the lid on the air lock, all seems to be on secure. I also pushed the middle of the lid and I did see bubbles in the air lock. To answer your question about the temp of the wort, I can’t be exact but I know I was around 78 or lower. Should I just give it a week or so, and not worry or should I be checking every day for activity.

Thanks for everyone’s input, am new at this and don’t want to miss something.

78 was pretty warm to pitch. If you pitched plenty of yeast, it may have finished overnight and you just didn’t notice.

Give it some time. If you haven’t seen airlock activity after 3 days or so, check the gravity. If it hasn’t changed, pitch more yeast.

Ok, I just check it and I’m seeing nothing. I will wait over night and pull a reading tomorrow. As far as pitching another yeast, I’m very new to this, can I go down to the local brew shop and buy just any yeast or I’m I looking for a certain type or brand? The ale pale is reading 74 degrees. Once again, sorry for the stupid questions I’m just having trouble getting this started.

I’m not meaning to second guess, but I haven’t had (or heard of anyone having) much luck with just pitching in more dry, rehydrated, or liquid yeast into a stalled beer. I am thinking you don’t need to do anything. I would do this though:

-post your reading here. If you have over 70-80% attenuation, the beer is done. (one other question: did you oxygenate the wort before pitching the yeast?)
[explanation of attenuation: 1.050 OG, gravity reading of 1.014 after a week = (1.050-1.014)/.050 = .72 or 72% attenuation, or loosely, apparent degree of fermentation…how much sugar the yeast ate]
-if it is somehow is not down to a low gravity, you should try ‘krausening’ it. This is the only way I’ve actually had a ‘stalled’ beer drop lower in gravity

Krausening:
-find a 1 gallon glass container (or buy a 2L erlenmeyer flask, which will come in handy later if you find you like this ridiculous hobby we all have :slight_smile:
-boil a cup of dry malt extract (DME) in about 1.5 quarts of water for 10 minutes
-cool that down to 70 degrees
-funnel into container (either flask or other gallon container that has been cleaned and sanitize)
-pitch your packet of yeast into THAT once its cooled
-after 2-3 hours, when you see a big head of foam (“krausen”) in that container, dump the whole thing into your fermenter with the stalled beer.

The idea being that you are pitching ACTIVELY FERMENTING yeast into the beer, as opposed to dormant yeast.

Again, I’m thinking your beer has already fermented and this krausening nonsense won’t be necessary, but either way, post your findings here.

As Pietro said, “stuck” fermentations are virtually impossible to fix. But my money is on one of two things: 1 the fermentation has already done what its going to do, and no amount of futzing will fix it. Or 2: the yeast was dead, and truly nothing has happened. If that is the case (which would be indicated by no change at all in gravity), re-aerating and pitching new yeast is a perfectly viable solution.

The OP really needs to take a gravity reading to be sure though.

My “sorta worry” time is 72-80 hours. You will see activity by Wednesday morning.

You can buy any yeast you want. Best to use the same that the recipe called for. If it’s not available, us-05 is a good all purpose substitute. Or 04, Nottingham.

This is not a case of a “stuck fermentation”. The yeast just have not hit their peak.

So, I just checked it and the airlock is rocking. Looks like everything is working like it should. Now my question is, am I back on track and should I stick with the procedure timeline? Once again thank you everyone for the advice, I learned a lot over the last couple of days. :cheers:

  1. tear up the instructions.

  2. read every thread on the 1st 2 pages of the “General”, “Extract/partial mash” and “Yeast and Fermentation” topics.

Then wait 3 weeks before doing anything. The time line you are on is the yeast’s time line. Not some calender.

[quote=“Nighthawk”]1. tear up the instructions.[/quote]I agree, at least they could update them and include a hydrometer in their brewing kits. The mods ought to put a sticky up about fermentation times, there’s been at least 20 thread in the last month along the lines of " My beer’s been in the primary for a week…"

I’m fairly new here myself, but after about a month of daily reading, I do wonder why the mods here dont better utilize stickies for FAQ.

Only thing I can think, is that they’d rather have folks use the learn tab on the main page.

When did they stop including hydrometers? My wife got me my kit for Xmas 2011 and it had a hydrometer in it. Would be very strange is they didn’t include one.

As for all the threads about “stuck” fermentation, I remember as a n00b I was totally sure I’d ruined everything 6 different times during my first brew. Having a hydrometer, instructions indicating I should wait 2 weeks, etc., did nothing to mitigate the concern :wink: . I’m thinking there’s a lot of this going on mid-late January every year…

[quote=“ickyfoot”]When did they stop including hydrometers? My wife got me my kit for Xmas 2011 and it had a hydrometer in it. Would be very strange is they didn’t include one.
[/quote]I don’t know when they stopped including them, but it’s an ‘upgrade’ now. This is what it says at the bottom of the brewing kits product pages:[quote]Note: Testing the specific gravity of your batch is the best way to keep tabs on fermentation, and for us to help troubleshoot by phone or email. We highly recommend adding our Mad Brewer Upgrade Kit or Brewery Essentials Gravity Testing Kit.[/quote]

Ah, gotcha…she definitely got me more than the basic kit…not sure if she had to do an additional add on for the hydrometer. Seems very odd not to include it in the most basic kit available…