Very Slow Start

[wyatt_girth]

Heya,
I put a brew on Staurday lunch time and it has very little activity almost 72 hours later. There is a small amount of krausen, though nowhere near as much as my previous brews. Should I toss more yeast in? Is 72 hours (more by the time I get home this arv) too long? It has been sitting on 18 degrees for this time. Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers

 

[matt white]

Stop looking at it! Patience my friend, leave it alone! Give it at least another 4-7 days and then take a gravity reading. I reckon she'll be OK.

Dont compare krausens with previous brews. Yeast activity/temperature is different from one beer to the next. You cant kill a beer by leaving it alone for a week or two, you can destroy it by poking and prodding it every 5 minutes whilst fermenting.

Good luck

 

[sponge]

I put down a batch on friday afternoon, and only this morning has any real krausen appeared (4 days later...). It'll be ok, just let it do its 'thang'.

I'm thinking that my slow start was me leaving my waterbath with ice bottles still in it, and i think it got down to around 14'C. So, im assuming i stopped the yeast for a bit so i took out the ice bottles over the last few days and its been slowly going in the right direction since then

Sponge

 

[white.grant]

Yep, early days, -- what is it your brewing and what type of yeast are you using?

grant

 

[Beer-Smith]

I had one slow start that took four days but then suddenly took off. It is unusual, however.

Make sure you are pitching yeast at the proper rate and using a properly sized starter.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[Rod]

Are you using dry yeast , if so are you hydrating it about one hour before pitching

some times the krausen can come and go over night , had one similar last month so I checked the gravity and it was 1008 after 2 days

 

[wyatt_girth]

Thanks folks for the advice. It is a very basic Coopers Sparkling Ale with a Brewcraft blend and, I am a little hesitant to say........ its the yeast from under the lid (I ask what to use at LHBS and the guy keeps tellin me to use the coopers ones cos the 'Premium' and 'Brewmaster' range yeasts are alright). I will check the gravity maybe tomorrow and see what it tells me. Also, it was Sunday that I put it on not Saturday.
Thanks again

 

[solidghost]

The Cooper's yeast in the can should be pretty resilient so I think you should be alright. But seriously, there is no harm in opening your fermenter and pouring another package of yeast in. Of course, try to minimize the time you take to pour the yeast and closing the stopper again.

 

[0M39A]

Thanks folks for the advice. It is a very basic Coopers Sparkling Ale with a Brewcraft blend and, I am a little hesitant to say........ its the yeast from under the lid (I ask what to use at LHBS and the guy keeps tellin me to use the coopers ones cos the 'Premium' and 'Brewmaster' range yeasts are alright). I will check the gravity maybe tomorrow and see what it tells me. Also, it was Sunday that I put it on not Saturday.
Thanks again

most coopers kits come with standard 514 yeast. average at best (imo). some of the kits do come with a true lager yeast though. the baverian lager, pilsener and (im 90% sure) the new euro lager. there were also rumors that the cervesa kit came with 50/50 lager/ale.

strange that the HBS guy didnt want to upsale you though...

 

[wyatt_girth]

strange that the HBS guy didnt want to upsale you though...

I gave him a couple of opportunities to do so but he didn't take them so I just tossed the kit yeast in like he said. Any recommendations on what to use next time or if I add another this time? I would rather go in and ask for something in particular then go in there with no idea and just take whatever.

 

[boingk]

I find that most of the HB stores I go to are like that actually...they don't tend to push anything much on me at all. Might recommend a recipe here or there but mostly its just the 'what are you after' question or general recommendations on what'd go well together to make the style I'm after.

Recommendation-wise, I reckon its a good bet to use US-05 on ales and try for S-189 on lagers. The former is a nice, well attenuating yeast with a good crisp end palette [sic?]...the latter a good neutral lager yeast. S-23 isn't bad in my opinion, but I'd rather the '189. For things like porters or British-style ales I'd be edging towards S-04.

Cheers - boingk

 

[0M39A]

I gave him a couple of opportunities to do so but he didn't take them so I just tossed the kit yeast in like he said. Any recommendations on what to use next time or if I add another this time? I would rather go in and ask for something in particular then go in there with no idea and just take whatever.

Like most things in life, it just depends.

Its commonly accecpted that the best dried beer yeasts are safale s-04 and us-05, and danstar nottingham.


safale s-04 is great for english style beers and stouts, and us-05 and nottingham are great for pale ales.

us-05 is a very clean fermenter, and a great all round yeast imo.

then there are salfale wb-06 and danstars new bavarian wheat, which are good for wheat beers. the latter is ment to be better than the former, but i havent used either so i cant really comment.

w34/70, s23 and s-189 are good dried lager yeasts.

finally there is t-58 and s-33 ale yeasts, but theyre a bit more specialised, so unless you are reccomended them, i wouldnt use them.

there are also a couple other specialised dry yeasts

after that, there is the huge array of liquid yeasts, but i doubt you would be very interested in them yet, as they are more specialised and cost upwards of $10 each.

before you buy your bits and pieces, let us know here what you are aiming for in your next beer and we can reccomend a yeast to suit.

cheers

 

[wyatt_girth]

SG is down to 1015 so all is OK. Thanks again for the reassurance.