My Airlock Sucks!

[Brizbrew]

You might of read the story of the stout I brewed on the weekend, it was an all grain beer for the QLD Xmas case.
I pitched the yeast WLP004 on Sunday evening and left it in the fridge to cool down overnight, i pitched at 26C so wanted it to come down a bit more before turning the fridge off and letting ambient temps take over, the problem was the fermenter was at 8C when I checked it the following morning. :blink:
I turned off the fridge and allowed it to reise to 18C which it is now steady at, it has been there for 24 hours with two good stirs and nothing, not a dicky bird.
The only airlock activity is that it is sucking air bubbles in rather than blowing them out! :huh: Whats all that about?
Should I repitch some yeast? I have some saf04 in the fridge or I could make a trip up to the HBS at Chapel Hill.

Whaddya reckon? :unsure:

 

[Ross]

You might of read the story of the stout I brewed on the weekend, it was an all grain beer for the QLD Xmas case.
I pitched the yeast WLP004 on Sunday evening and left it in the fridge to cool down overnight, i pitched at 26C so wanted it to come down a bit more before turning the fridge off and letting ambient temps take over, the problem was the fermenter was at 8C when I checked it the following morning. :blink:
I turned off the fridge and allowed it to reise to 18C which it is now steady at, it has been there for 24 hours with two good stirs and nothing, not a dicky bird.
The only airlock activity is that it is sucking air bubbles in rather than blowing them out! :huh: Whats all that about?
Should I repitch some yeast? I have some saf04 in the fridge or I could make a trip up to the HBS at Chapel Hill.

Whaddya reckon? :unsure:

[post="79739"][/post]​

Brizbrew,

I seem to remember you saying that you pitched the yeast straight in without smacking?? If that's the case it could take days to get going - It will do eventually, if you have access to some CO2, give the inside of the fermenter a squirt & she'll be fine...

 

[ryanator]

I've had the problem of air being sucked in through the airlock before. I used to put my fermenter in front of the heater to raise the temperature. When the fermenter is moved away from the heater, the warm air inside cools and shrinks. This causes air to be sucked into the fermenter through the airlock. It confused the hell out of me at first!

:beer:

 

[Brizbrew]

The fermenter started with a fury last night!

I raised the temp up to ambient room temp and that got it slowly going, about one bubble per 45 seconds through the airlock at 3pm so I thought I would put a blow off tube on in place of the airlock...Good job I did.
I got up this morning to find the temp of the fermenter up to 26 and the blow off tube was full of stout as was the inside of my fridge. I brought the temp back down to 20c where it is now currently bubbling away very fast.
Hopefully I can rack to secondary over the weekend.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

The fermenter started with a fury last night!

I raised the temp up to ambient room temp and that got it slowly going, about one bubble per 45 seconds through the airlock at 3pm so I thought I would put a blow off tube on in place of the airlock...Good job I did.
I got up this morning to find the temp of the fermenter up to 26 and the blow off tube was full of stout as was the inside of my fridge. I brought the temp back down to 20c where it is now currently bubbling away very fast.
Hopefully I can rack to secondary over the weekend.

Thanks for your help guys.

[post="80182"][/post]​

Brizbrew, if you pitched the yeast on the weekend of brewing and it has only started kicking off yesterday I would not be racking just a few days later. Don't panic and let the beer sit at 20C on the primary yeast for at least 2 weeks. It won't have a detrimental effect, in fact the yeast will still be doing it's job even after all the sugars are converted.

Unless of course you are in a hurry to drink it?

C&B
TDA

 

[Ross]

Yep, I agree with TDA, - especially I reckon with stouts, a nice long primary ferment...