How soon should I see a Krausen?

[doctr-dan]

Brewed my first batch in the GF on Saturday and chilled it down to about 17-18 degrees and pitched Us-05 dry Saturday afternoon.
I had a look this morning and couldn't see any sign of fermentation through the side of the fermenter, I've got it in a temp controlled fridge sitting at 18.
Should I be concerned?

 

[pcmfisher]

From my experience US05 is not the quickest to take off and is not very spectacular when it does.

Give it another day and you should see a start.

 

[rude]

Usually 12 to 24 hours the quicker it fires up the better

What sort of fermenter ?

How many litres of wort ,what was you're OG, how many pkts of yeast & did you rehydrate

Mybe use a torch & shine through the lid to see, you might have to take it out of the fridge to see properly

I would be surprised if its not eating wort

 

[doctr-dan]

It's the bucket style fermenter sort of opaque colour.

Only 19ltrs of wort.
OG 1.050
One packet of yeast just sprinkles on the top.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

I've had some slow starts sprinkling US 05 and now I always rehydrate for much quicker and more vigorous kick-offs. I would be concerned if there's no visible signs of a ferment tomorrow though. Only other thing I can think of was the health of your yeast i.e di the shop you brought it from keep it refrigerated?

 

[Vini2ton]

I used a sachet of US-05 that was 18 months out of date. Rehydrated and pitched it fired up beautifully. Had plan B but was curious as to its viability. I'm betting by now it's cooking. We panic often for nothing. Just ask my shrink.

 

[Rocker1986]

Take a gravity reading and see whether it's dropped any. I can't say I've ever had US-05 take that long to show visible signs of activity though.

Coincidentally, I too pitched some into a 21L batch of pale ale on Saturday (morning), OG about 1.048, and also set to 18C in the brew fridge. This yeast is 9th generation harvested/re-used yeast that was in a starter, which was chilling in the brew fridge prior to pitching. Pitched it cold straight out of the fridge and it was going by yesterday morning when I looked at it again, but probably Saturday night sometime it got going. I've noticed reduced lag times from this cold pitching method, and no negative impacts on the finished beer.

 

[Fraser's BRB]

As others have said, hydrate next time for quicker results. I used to do what you've done and it can take as long as 36 hours on occasion with US-05.

If you're worried about it, pop the top and have a look. I used to be real panicky about taking the top off a fermenter but now I often do if I have a concern about a slow start and haven't had an issue. 99% of the time, I pop the top and there's healthy krausen it's just not started bubbling excitedly.

 

[mikec]

Check the age of the yeast, if it's old it can be slow to start and won't necessarily be happy yeasties. With old dried yeast I even do a small starter first to wake the, up and get them active before pitching into full volume of wort. Aside from giving the ferment a better start, it's a good way to see if the yeast is actually ok or not before pitching.

 

[doctr-dan]

I checked when I got home yesterday afternoon, looks like it's started as most of you have said not very vigorous I can see were the krausen line was above the wort.
Took a while though considering pitched Saturday afternoon and appears like it didn't really get going till sometime during the day on Monday.
The yeast came from cheeky peak so I assume they would refrigerate there yeast.
I will look into rehydrating for the next one for sure

 

[doctr-dan]

I was was told a few other things yesterday that would have contributed to the slow start.
I should have pitched at about 21 degrees not 18.
I should have air rated the wort.
And I should have had the yeast at room temperature before pitching not straight out of the fridge.
We live and learn

 

[Mikeyr]

Never stop learning and don't sweat it, and only aerating the wort is a biggie!

Pitching at 18 is fine, sometimes good things take a little time!

Try the old "walking the barrel". I.e. stir it up a bit in the first 24-36 hrs if it seems slow. If you get some blow off at least you know you didn't get a dodgy packet.

 

[Fraser's BRB]

Slighty OT, but on topic a bit too.

Last weekend I brewed Dr Smurto's Golden which is one of two beers that have become my house ales because everyone loves them. The other beer is a Pale Ale which I knew I would be kegging on the same day I was brewing the Golden.

I got lazy during the week and didn't do a yeast starter, knowing that both beers use WY1056 (led to believe this is the liquid strain of S-05), I decided to just pitch slurry from the pale into the golden. A little over 500mL of slurry and 24 hours later I come back to the below.

Fastest and most active start to a ferment I've ever seen. It was going insane and continued to do so through primary ferment. Early indications are for good beer if a little drier than usual as it's dropped a couple of more points than usual, but that's ok coming into the warmer months.

 

[welly2]

Hydrated US-05 for a wheat IPA I made the other week. I've never actually seen US-05 go so nuts. There was about 6 or 7 inches of krausen and it kicked off within a few hours. I guess it was hungry.