Hello everyone. Its been a while since I’ve visited here and after getting sucked in for a couple hours I remembered why I enjoy the forum so much…such wisdom here
So I brewed up my second “dead ringer” kit yesterday and its been about 13 hours and no activity in the airlock yet.
Although I am not yet in panic mode, most of the time I have something going on by now.
This is the third time ive used this batch of yeast. {2nd washing). I dont really wash it. I just capture the trub at the bottom of the carboy and bottle it into 2 separate mason jars and refrigerate until I use it next. Then when I am ready to brew I take them out of the refrigerator and separate the yeast cake from the trub and also make a small wort to add to the yeast, then pitch.
How long can it take for fermentation to take place considering this process? I have a packet of yeast on stand by just in case so I dont want to jump the gun yet also wait to long and lose the batch either.
I had quite a bit of yeast cake, I had a 1000ml mason jar filled with the yeast and wort. Also, this time I spooned the yeast off the top of the trub while it was still cold, I had about 1 inch of yeast in the bottom of the mason jar. It was easy to tell the color difference between the yeast and the trub which was a little green from the hops from the previous brew.
Too soon to worry. Sometimes the yeast just start very slowly. Temperature of the wort at the time of the pitch will have an effect on how soon the most obvious signs of fermentation are noticeable. During the yeasts reproductive phase there isn’t to much to see in the way of fermentation. I don’t even begin to be concerned for at least 24 hours.
Fermenting in a carboy you may see some pressure develop in the airlock. The sanitizer will be pushed by pressure to one side of a s-style airlock. Signs of fermentation may not be seen with buckets until the fermentation is very active. More leaks in buckets for pressure to escape other than through the airlock.
I don’t think you need to worry about the harvested yeast being a problem unless it was very old. By old I mean several months or more.
Do you use a pitch rate/starter calculator like this one to help estimate the viability of your harvested yeast?
The WY 1056 I use for Amber Ales and the Dead Ringer is 6th generation. No problems with it at all. I’m holding it at gen 6 by saving a 100 billion cells by making may starters larger than necessary using the Brew United calculator…
