Off the Topper Help!

Yeast & Fermentation
1

I brewed Off the Topper last night and thought all went well until I woke up this morning and found that I don’t have a single bubble in my fermenter. I did a yeast starter with the Vermont yeast but only gave it about 17 hrs of start time but it sure looked like it had been propogating. I am using a blow off tube as I have done plenty of these big beers and know what they should look like when the fermentation starts.

I swear I did everything according to directions, kept things clean etc. Maybe my house is too cold, it is sitting in an area about 66 to 68 and I am going to NB today to pick up a heating pad to regulate and stabilize, but for the now the question remains, what happened and did I waste a whole evening and screw something up?

I did not do a final gravity this time, kind of forgot and it was getting late but this brew seemed to go along just like others.

I have never had an initial fermentation take so long to start, usually happens within hours, oh and I added oxygen to the wort before I pitched too.

2

That’s a short time for a starter, so you prolly underpitched. And with underpitching you will have a longer lag time before full fermentation starts. RDWAHAHB. That Yeast is a little sluggish in my opinion. Just give it some time, and don’t freak out when that beer takes 10-12 days to ferm out all the way.

Cheers!!

3

^ That’s good advice. I’ve used Conan on my last two beers, and it’s definitely slow and steady. Both took a good 24-36 hours to show signs of fermentation and finished in about 10 days.

4

A yeast update:

Well I stopped in at NB and had a chat with the fine folks and we came to the conclusion that I toasted my yeast when I pitched it, likely a tad too high on the temp. Got a new vial of yeast, pitched it right away and within an hour had activity and now a day later it looks like a volcano. You learn something new every day for sure.

5

At what temp did you pitch the initial Conan yeast?