Beer Forum

After a very slow start 32+ hrs with no activity in my latest brew. I began to look a little closer into my yeast handling to see if I made any errors. Boy did I.

1.) used distilled water for rehydration
2.) put it in a flask and on a stir plate right from the start instead of letting it sit.
3.) did not acclimate the temp of the yeast to wort pitching temp, but it wasn't far off, maybe 10 degrees or so.

using danstar BRY-97 which has many issues with slow starts. it's a lower gravity beer, 1.044.

I still have a little hope that it will work but I'm doubtful. I barely had positive pressure in the airlock.

any suggestions other than wait? how long should I wait before I repitch?

Are you sure that it hasn't finished quickly. Low gravity could have fermented out with one packet.

-farm

farmbrew wrote:Are you sure that it hasn't finished quickly. Low gravity could have fermented out with one packet.

-farm

I mean I guess it could have but there is no evidence of a krausen ring and I check them pretty regularly since I'm still new to brewing. this is batch #7

O2? Nutrient? Age? Pitch size?

I've only had one experience with dry yeast - champagne (EC-1118) - and wow, that thing was a beast.

From what I remember:

I used bottled spring water as the initial rehydration and poured it in a mason jar. I didn't want to contaminate the water so instead of poking it with a thermometer to check the proper temp I just filled up my sink with a shallow layer of the hottest water that would come out of the faucet and placed the jar in the water. A few minutes later dropped in the yeast, waited the 10 minutes, added a small yeast starter, shook, and within 30 minutes I had krausen forming in the jar.

I don't have much experience for you, but at this point, I'd personally get another packet, rehydrate it, make sure it's alive and well, and pitch it in, otherwise you risk straining the yeast and getting some strong, unwanted flavors if the current yeast ever does pick up.

You could always check the gravity just to make sure it hasn't finished already, but I think you'd see your airlock move a little at the very least.

Moving forward, I'd always make sure your yeast is alive and well before pitching it. Whether that be hearing the "pssssst" of a warmed white labs vial, an inflated smack pack, or bubbles forming from a yeast starter.

Good luck!

Frostbrewer wrote:

farmbrew wrote:Are you sure that it hasn't finished quickly. Low gravity could have fermented out with one packet.

-farm

I mean I guess it could have but there is no evidence of a krausen ring and I check them pretty regularly since I'm still new to brewing. this is batch #7[/quote
I don't have much experience for you, but at this point, I'd personally get another packet, rehydrate it, make sure it's alive and well, and pitch it in, otherwise you risk straining the yeast and getting some strong, unwanted flavors if the current yeast ever does pick up.

You could always check the gravity just to make sure it hasn't finished already, but I think you'd see your airlock move a little at the very least.

Moving forward, I'd always make sure your yeast is alive and well before pitching it. Whether that be hearing the "pssssst" of a warmed white labs vial, an inflated smack pack, or bubbles forming from a yeast starter.

Good luck!

What is the gravity?

You might not have been able to see the airlock move, the yeast could have eaten through it rather quickly. I have had some low gravity beers finish before I even noticed anything, I was worried but always check gravity.

Check gravity before proceeding, it could be there.
Good luck,

-farm

son of a B.

60 hours, and I have 2 inches of beautiful krausen. Talked to the dude at my homebrew shop last night about this issue and he said to give it 3 days. I went ahead and bought some more BRY-97 and some safale-05 just so that I have some nice reserves.

I checked before work this morning and there was still absolutely nothing, but BAM get home and there's my fermentation.

for Ozwald
I just shook the hell out of the carboy to aerate
no nutrient
age? of what?
pitch size was 400ml, which is 300ml more than they asked for. I was also worried I drowned the yeast but had already made my first post and didn't want to go back and edit it.

Beerd Man
" otherwise you risk straining the yeast and getting some strong, unwanted flavors if the current yeast ever does pick up."

hopefully this isn't the case. But brewing is such a great hands on learning process that if this is what happens I'll just chalk it up to experience and run with it.