Is Safale (english) A Slow Starter? Crisis!

[lpa]

Hi. I'm going through a month of fermentation hell. Nothing has changed but suddenly every brew is requiring ugly remedial action and it's killing me. Today I pitched 11g of room temp Safale yeast (expiry '07) directly (sprinkled as per packet instructions) onto the 24deg wort (can Muntons English Bitter + half kilos of Dex and Pale Dry Malt + a teabag of fuggles finishing hops) and after 11 hours at 22-24deg no action whatsoever. Is it a bad sign that there's tonnes of sediment? I know the temp range is 15-24deg and I was on the edge, but I didn't think it would kill it. Am I just being an impatient freak? Do I leave it till the morning and toss in a proofed batch of yeast? Any advice welcome...

 

[Shunty]

Saf has never realy been a slow starter for me, and pitching at 24 shouldn't kill it. Are you 100% sure it hasn't started? your comment about sediment makes me think you may have some fermentation goin on - the muntons kit/dex/dme shouldn't give you any sediment. Take a hydro reading to check

 

[lpa]

Cheers Shunty,

Gravity's 1048, there's no surface activity and no CO2. But, y'know, some scribes say give them 24 hours. It's just I put a lot of love into this wort and I don't want to compromise it by waiting too long.

 

[razz]

G'day lpa, chill out fella. Like that ad says " It won't happen overnight, but it will happen" 11 hours isn't that long. Next time rehydrate the yeast in boiled/cooled water or mix it with a cup of the fresh wort and let it start. That way you will know the yeast is viable and, you will pitch an increased number of yeast cells. This should give you a quicker start.

John

 

[lpa]

You're right. I'm a massive stress-head au moment. Chill pills presently being necked like there's no tomorrow. It's tough being a kiwi, y'know...

 

[razz]

You should be happy, your mob finally got a gold medal of our mob today!

 

[mudsta]

I find Safale to be a fairly fast starter.

Maybe you didnt airate your wort enough before you pitched your yeast? For yeast to mulitpy in its first stage it needs a healthy dose of oxygen. Splash and stir your cool wort ALOT before pitching. I would also recommend rehydraditing your yeast as mentioned above.

Happy brewing,

Mudsta :beerbang:

 

[Kai]

I thought that dried yeast did not require wort aeration, only correct pitching rates.

 

[mudsta]

Your the one with the degree kai..... You got me thinking now....

Well Mr Geoge Fix says...

"In the intial period, the yeast activities include cell-wall preparation and oxygen, nitrogen and sugar uptake. In order to make use of wort nitrogen and sugars, the yeast cell wall must be permable. This requirement is why starving yeasts can display erratic behaviour at this stage. Oxygen is a crucial nutrient in this process. When the wort is cooled, it is absolutly essential to add oxygen to it." QUOTE The late Mr George Fix - Principals of brewing science - Page 89

Sorry kai, i think that cost you a beer :blink:

Mudsta :beerbang:

 

[Guest Lurker]

Yes that is true for liquid yeasts, but for dried yeasts they have been dried with all the reserves they need.

 

[lpa]

Thank you gentlemen. Well this morning there's no Krausen of the foaming wall of chunder variety, but a very thin, sad-looking bubblyish layer of activity which is producing a CO2 fart every couple of minutes at best. The multi-denominational prayer and 6 hour handstand might yet have worked.

Games-wise, is it Rocky 4 over there in the hotlands?

Cheers, over and out.

I'd just like to point out I sprinkled instead of re-hydrating cos the lovely ladies at Safale land told me to...

 

[delboy]

you could give it all a good swirl and try to stir it up a bit i do that at about day 4 and it works for me so doing it a bit earlier wont hurt .also as mentioned it is good to rehydrate the dry yeasts in a bit of wort at room temp or slity higher to get it going so you know that it is viable .

dont worry though keep an eye on the hydrometer and see what happens

delboy

 

[KoNG]

Ive had S04 take more than 48 hours to start. although i pitch at 17*C... more chill pills needed, it'll be fine. a little shake and swirl as delboy suggests cant hurt.

 

[Trough Lolly]

...Sorry kai, i think that cost you a beer :blink:

Mudsta :beerbang:

[post="116550"][/post]​

Sorry Mudsta - Kai is spot on - as GL correctly advised. George (RIP) was writing about liquid yeast and yes, the cells need some work on their walls in order to build up viability prior to the adaptive and attentuative phases in the fermenter.

Your Safale (SO-4) yeast works best if you rehydrate it in water prior to pitching - the rehyrdrated yeast has plenty of glycogen and trehalose to give it a jump start when you bring it back to life and those compounds are normally consumed within about 30 minutes of activation. You can also innoculate the rehydration with small amounts of wort to attemperate the cells to the destination solution, but rehydrating dry yeast before pitching is a good practice to adopt. If I use dry yeast, I rehydrate it in a sanitised pyrex jug whilst I'm chilling and aerating the wort enroute to the fermenter, ie, at the end of the brew session... Safale always takes off like a frog in a sock for me!

Cheers,
TL

Edit - and rousing the fermenter with a sterile spoon is a good idea - get a whirlpool happening just like the pros do with yeast stirrers....Good luck and have faith in your yeast. Your hyrdrometer is your friend here...

 

[mudsta]

Ok trough.

Kai owes me a beer or two so i was just trying to lever one off him.

Mudsta

 

[Trough Lolly]

No probs - if you can get 2 beers off Kai, I'll go halves!!

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

Safale always takes off like a frog in a sock for me!

[post="116582"][/post]​

Wow... sweet...

Me too. You can get away with pretty warm water for rehydration - don't stir it until it gets a chocolate mousse-type head on it, then stir it a bit, and stir every 5 minutes or so, then whack it in. Should take 5-10 minutes to form big cracked head, and 20 minutes to kick into action. Once it's in the wort, it's generally a 2-8 hour start.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Yep, I always make my starters during the heat of the day - I try to match the temp in the room with the yeast before pitching into water and yes, I have the water around the 28C mark. Er, this is ale yeast I'm talking about, although I read that lager dry yeast likes a warm start too which is how I built up my Wyeast 2124 Bavarian Lager yeast smack pack last weekend.

The use by date is nearly two years ago, but the yeast is bubbling away quite merrily in a 13C fermenter right now! Yeast is pretty hardy / resilient stuff you know!

Cheers,
TL