1st Partial - Appears Yeast Not Working

[mossyrocks]

Hi,

I put down my 1st partial on Saturday via the following ingredients and instructions:-

I wanted to do a Hefeweizen so I crushed 1kg of German pilsner malt & 1kg of German wheat malt.
I boiled 6litres of water to 67C and poured over my crushed malt grain in a 10 litre esky, closed the lid and let sit for 1 hour.
After 1 hour I strained the liquid into my SS pot and then put another 6 litres of hot tap water on my mash for another 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes I poured the liquid into my pot and put this onto boil with 300 grams LDM extract for 1 hour (after 50 minutes I added my Coopers Wheat Beer tin wort).

Once completed I poured the wort into my fermenter and filled with cold water to 23 litres. I let this sit overnight as the temperature was too high to pitch my yeast.
Sunday morning the temperature was down to 21C so I added the 12grams of Weizen - Wheat yeast.

I now have no bubbling through the airlock or any condensation inside the lid of my fermenter.

I don't believe this is normal - is there anything I can do to get this working?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Steve]

Hi,

I put down my 1st partial on Saturday via the following ingredients and instructions:-

I wanted to do a Hefeweizen so I crushed 1kg of German pilsner malt & 1kg of German wheat malt.
I boiled 6litres of water to 67C and poured over my crushed malt grain in a 10 litre esky, closed the lid and let sit for 1 hour.
After 1 hour I strained the liquid into my SS pot and then put another 6 litres of hot tap water on my mash for another 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes I poured the liquid into my pot and put this onto boil with 300 grams LDM extract for 1 hour (after 50 minutes I added my Coopers Wheat Beer tin wort).

Once completed I poured the wort into my fermenter and filled with cold water to 23 litres. I let this sit overnight as the temperature was too high to pitch my yeast.
Sunday morning the temperature was down to 21C so I added the 12grams of Weizen - Wheat yeast.

I now have no bubbling through the airlock or any condensation inside the lid of my fermenter.

I don't believe this is normal - is there anything I can do to get this working?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Just be patient. It all sounds good except one thing...your sparge water should ideally be 78 degrees NOT just hot tap water. Did you add any hops to the boil or just the tin after 50 mins? :unsure:
Cheers
Steve

 

[mossyrocks]

Steve,

Thanks for you reply.

No I didn't add any hops, just the tin after 50 mins. What hops should I have added?

Chris

 

[Steve]

Steve,

Thanks for you reply.

No I didn't add any hops, just the tin after 50 mins. What hops should I have added?

Chris

ermmmm - its being a while since I did partials but I would have added some hallertau at 60 mins (bittering) - to about 14-18 IBU. The tin of goo might be enough as it was hopped extract.....

Edit: do a search on "first partial" lots of reading.

 

[petesbrew]

All the best with your partial, Mossyrocks. Hopefully it should be going this arvo or tomorrow if all is good.
I also did my first partial, an altbier, on the weekend.
Lots of messing around, with all kinds of notes gleaned off these sites(all contradicting each other in various ways ).
All we can do is try and learn from our mistakes.
cheers
pete

 

[amita]

Sunday morning the temperature was down to 21C so I added the 12grams of Weizen - Wheat yeast.

Hi Mossyrocks,
if you are using Saf-Wheat K97 it is a slow starter, up to 36 hours before you notice any action.
it will come some time today,
good luck
Amita

 

[rich_lamb]

Hi,
I'm with the others - don't panic. It looks like you've done nothing that would prevent healthy fermentation. Though you didn't mention if you thrashed some oxygen into your wort which is generally a good idea, this won't stop fermentation.

I've used that K-97 yeast and it does a fantastic flavour profile in wheats. Good choice.

The thing to bear in mind with lag time is that a quick starting fermentation is not always a good thing. Some people are pretty determined to get that thing bubbling quickly, when they should be concentrating on what's really best for the beer.
The yeast does a few things before active fermentation, including consuming all the oxygen and reproducing, so let it do it's thing as this is to your advantage.

Another point - while you can just sprinkle dried yeast into the wort and it will work fine (big cell count in those packs), you're actually better to rehydrate the yeast first. Instructions for this vary slightly but at the end of the day the ones published by the yeast manufacturer are the best. I mix the yeast into sterile 30degC water for 30 minutes before pitching.

 

[chovain]

I boiled 6litres of water to 67C and poured over my crushed malt grain in a 10 litre esky, closed the lid and let sit for 1 hour.
After 1 hour I strained the liquid into my SS pot and then put another 6 litres of hot tap water on my mash for another 15 minutes.

I realise everyone's addressed your yeast issue, and you weren't actually asking about other stuff, but I thought I might comment on this bit. Your strike water should be above 67 degrees. Your goal is to have the mash sitting at about 67 degrees. In most systems, that'll mean initially adding water at about 74 degrees or more - the grain and eski have an incredible cooling effect on the water.

As someone else pointed out, you want to be sparging with hotter water than your tap is spitting out. I tend to go for about 78 degrees. This will help your efficiency, as the fermentables will dissolve more readily. It's important not to let the grain get above about 80 degrees though - you'll start dissolving too many tannins otherwise.

its being a while since I did partials but I would have added some hallertau at 60 mins (bittering) - to about 14-18 IBU

I wouldn't go quite that far in a hefeweizen. I tend to aim for 8-12 IBUs - but that's probably a personal taste more than anything. In a hefeweizen, the malt, esters and phenols should dominate - there should be just enough hop bitterness to provide a bit of balance.

 

[mossyrocks]

Thank you all for your suggestions and information. I'll see if the brew is bubbling when I get home from work tonight.

I'm so looking forward for this brew to work as I have developed a taste for german wheat beers.

I will take particluar note of the temperature suggestions.

Thanks once again.

 

[winkle]

Good luck with it mate, hopefully it should be bubbling by tonight B) .
Get a decent thermometer it'll help standardize everything and remove guess work, so if you've made something good you can repeat it.

 

[mossyrocks]

I checked this morning - no bubbling but there appears to be condensation inside on the fermenter's lid.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[amita]

I checked this morning - no bubbling but there appears to be condensation inside on the fermenter's lid.

We'll see how it goes.

thats a start! be patient and it will grow!
cheers amita

 

[andrewg]

thats a start! be patient and it will grow!
cheers amita

I've had this problem in the past with K-97, but it is a good yeast. You can get active frementation in 12-24 hours if you rehydrate it and give the wort plenty of aeration before pitching.
Hang it there!
HStB

 

[amita]

Hi,

I put down my 1st partial on Saturday via the following ingredients and instructions:-


Sunday morning the temperature was down to 21C so I added the 12grams of Weizen - Wheat yeast.


Mossyrocks, did you use the saf wheat k97 in the blue packet, you never confirmed this??

cheers amita

 

[Ross]

I've used that K-97 yeast and it does a fantastic flavour profile in wheats. Good choice.

Are you sure :blink: - K-97 has zero German wheat character. It is a German Ale yeast giving very low ester levels, perfect for an Alt, but NOT a German wheat. I'm assuming (hoping) Mossyrocks used a true weizen dried yeast (WB-06 or CraftBrewer weizen) especially as he mentioned it was a weizen yeast he used.

Mossyrocks, check your gravity, the krausen can come & go overnight if you fermented a touch warm. I reckon you'll find its going fine.

cheers Ross

 

[winkle]

Are you sure :blink: - K-97 has zero German wheat character. It is a German Ale yeast giving very low ester levels, perfect for an Alt, but NOT a German wheat. I'm assuming (hoping) Mossyrocks used a true weizen dried yeast (WB-06 or CraftBrewer weizen) especially as he mentioned it was a weizen yeast he used.

Mossyrocks, check your gravity, the krausen can come & go overnight if you fermented a touch warm. I reckon you'll find its going fine.

cheers Ross

The reason that most of us assumed he was using K-97 is that many Home Brew Shops have it stocked/labled as Saf-wheat and I've seen it included in a "weizen" partial kit (ie. can of goo, small grain packs, finishing hops and yeast).

 

[mossyrocks]

Thanks again for all your comments, suggestions and support.

I used the dried Weizen - German Wheat yeast I bought from Ross' shop - crafthome brewer (plus all the grains).

Good news, this morning, no bubbling (which I've had before even though I have replaced all rubber seals etc) but a lot of condensation on the lid plus froth on the brew.

Phew, now I wait to see how she turns out.

1 other question, do I still prime my bottles (I've a keg - which I've never used - probably the next thing I learn), when it's time to bottle?

Thanks all for your help.

Chris

 

[braufrau]

1 other question, do I still prime my bottles (I've a keg - which I've never used - probably the next thing I learn), when it's time to bottle?

Yep. You sure do!

BTW - if you heated the strike water to 67C I doubt it would be 67C in the mash, because the esky, air and grains will cool the water down.
For my tun I lose about 15C in the transfer!

 

[rich_lamb]

Yeah K-97 (Safwheat) - the beer I used it in had plenty of weizen character. A friend of mine who used it had similar results, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't dreaming :lol:
There aren't two versions of this yeast are there; 'cos we seem to be talking about different things. (You aren't talking about that T-58 stuff? I was really disappointed with that...)

 

[Screwtop]

The fact the airlock in not bubbling means very little, lots of fermenters don't seal properly no matter how hard you screw down the lid. What was the FG? what is it now? if it's dropped it's working. Wort may not be all that fermentable so the 06 might behave a little differently, also if the OG was above 60 two saches should have been pitched. What does all this mean: It'll be ok, just could have been better.