Airlock not bubbling

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Matto J

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Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Trying a Hefeweizen. I boiled 3.4 kilograms of wheat LME in 5L water. Adding hops at 60 min, and 15 min. Cooled to 20deg C in ice bath, made up to 21L in fermenter and added dry hops. Rehydrated safbrew yeast at 40C and pitched yeast into wort which was at 20 degrees C a bit of action in the first 12 hours, but not enough to get the airlock bubbling. Thought rehydration killed yeast so pitched another sachet dry the next day. Still no action. Don't know what went wrong. Any ideas? Fermenter is in a stable 19 degrees fridge. Thanks.
 
Matto you will find heaps of topics like this on this forum, and generally they say that there is nothing to worry about. A lack of airlock activity is not necessarily a sign that there isn't anything happening. As long as there is froth around the top of the brew - krausen - you will be fine. It could be that the lid isn't airtight.

In my opinion don't worry, and watch for a few days.

Cheers
Mike
 
Hi Matto,

First up, welcome to the forum :)

The re hydration at 40c is high, pitching would have shocked and killed a high % of the yeast when @ 40c yeast into 20c wort, it needs to be within 5c to maintain a very low loss of yeast cells during that pitching.

Don't worry about the airlock activity, take a gravity sample and that will tell you if fermentation has begun.
 
How long ago did you do all this? It can take awhile for fermentation to kick-off if you're not using a swag of fresh yeast. It's also possible you've killed the initial pitch with 40C rehydration.

Have you taken the kittens out of your airlock?? :ph34r: Flame-suit prepared in advance.....
 
Haha. Thanks heaps. Pitched rehydrated yeast on Monday and the dry sachet on Tuesday. There is a bit of krausen but nowhere near the amount from previous brews.
 
Have you taken a gravity sample yet?

Let us know what you get.
 
Just did a reading. Got 1026. Phew think it must be happening, maybe just not super vigorously.
 
If you've got surface activity (ie. Krausen), then you've got fermentation. As noted above, don't worry about airlock activity & rely on your gravity samples to keep you abreast of progress.

Above all, RELAX!!!!!
 
Welcome Matto J, as all have said, relax. Let your eyes and your hydrometer guide you.
Cheers
 
MartinOC said:
Have you taken the kittens out of your airlock?? :ph34r: Flame-suit prepared in advance.....
OT - I came across this in some old threads yesterday and couldn't work out what it was about. Now I get it... cheers!
 
Matto J said:
Just did a reading. Got 1026. Phew think it must be happening, maybe just not super vigorously.
Nice, fermentation has happened.

Was that a hydrometer or refractometer reading?
 
*Scrolls through post looking for first kitten joke* *Sees it* *All is well with the world....*
 
First kitten of the year

kitten-2.jpg
 
MartinOC said:
How long ago did you do all this? It can take awhile for fermentation to kick-off if you're not using a swag of fresh yeast. It's also possible you've killed the initial pitch with 40C rehydration.

Have you taken the kittens out of your airlock?? :ph34r: Flame-suit prepared in advance.....
The fact that brewers still use airlocks is scary
 
Haha, recently used one on my new SS brewbucket and I wasn't sure what to do.
 
and that is another reason to favour a cling wrap fermentor lid... So you can see the ferment, and so you can disregard the airlock actions
 
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