Why Isn't My Beer Fermenting?

[Joel]

OK, I've got a problem. Aside from the obvious, my latest creation - a Vienna style dark lager - hasn't shown any signs of fermentation. No krausen, and no CO2 build up (I don't use an airlock, just gladwrap. The gladwrap usually has a nice upwards bulge indicating positive pressure in the fermenter).

Last Sunday (the 6th) I pitched a wyeast 2124 activator pack. Both the yeast pack and my beer were sitting at 11 degrees. I just poured the yeast straight in, as the back of the pack said could be done. No activity at all by Wednesday I thought that I might have killed the yeast somehow. I should have proofed the yeast by waiting for the pack to swell. Oh well, back to Mark's Homebrew to get another pack of yeast (Mark even let me have the second wyeast at cost even though he didn't have to. Thanks Mark!).

Second wyeast activator. Smacked in the shop and 6 hours later the pack had swelled up nicely proving that the yeast was alive and kicking. Great! Opened up the fermenter, airated again with my nice shiny new SS airstone (Thanks Ross!) and pitched the second batch of yeast into 11 degrees wort.

Open the fridge today, and still nothing. Two days isn't too soon for lager yeast activity is it? The surface of the wort is still nice an flat and smelling good, but no krausen and no gas caused bulge in the gladwrap.

Aside from my fermenting troubles, the brew day itself went very well. The only thing I did differently on this brew was to add 7g of gypsum into 30L filtered water in the HLT, and I tested the mash pH with my wizbang pen type digital pH tester I got from ebay. (wort pH came in at a little over 5 after 20mins of mashing).

Recipe:

Joel's Vienna

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

09-B German Amber Lager, Vienna Lager

Min OG: 1.046 Max OG: 1.052
Min IBU: 18 Max IBU: 30
Min Clr: 8 Max Clr: 12 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 23.00 Wort Size (L): 23.00
Total Grain (kg): 5.25
Anticipated OG: 1.052 Plato: 12.80
Anticipated SRM: 18.5
Anticipated IBU: 31.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 20.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 28.75 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041 SG 10.33 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
47.6 2.50 kg. Weyermann Pilsner Germany 1.038 3
38.1 2.00 kg. Weyermann Vienna Germany 1.038 5
4.8 0.25 kg. Weyermann Melanoidin Germany 1.037 60
4.8 0.25 kg. Weyermann Carapils (Carafoam) Germany 1.037 3
4.8 0.25 kg. Weyermann Caraaroma Germany 1.034 300

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
50.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.10 22.5 60 min.
30.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.10 8.2 20 min.
9.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.10 0.8 5 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 2124 Bohemian Lager


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain kg: 5.25
Water Qts: 12.68 - Before Additional Infusions
Water L: 12.00 - Before Additional Infusions

L Water Per kg Grain: 2.29 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 68 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 75 Time: 30


Total Mash Volume L: 15.50 - Dough-In Infusion Only

All temperature measurements are degrees Celsius.


My O.G came in at 1.0518 according to my trusty refractometer (thanks GMK!). But I must admit that I haven't taken an S.G. since then.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Joel.

 

[Coodgee]

pitching at such a cold temperature without making a starter could possibley mean you'll have to keep waiting for the yeast to multiply enough times to start fermentation. Most lager brewers recommend pitching a 2L starter for a lager. what temp was the yeast at when you pitched it? it's quite possible youv'e put it to sleep if the yeast was sitting at room temp and you poured it straight into a 10 degree wort.

If you are going to pitch the smack pak straight into the wort then it might be better to pitch into a warmer wort, of say 18 degrees and then reduce the temperature when you see signs of fermentation.

why don't you bother with an airlock? the glad wrap technique is pretty old technology.

 

[tangent]

did you make a strarter?
i used this yeast recently and it did take a while to take off.

 

[warrenlw63]

I should have proofed the yeast by waiting for the pack to swell.

Possibly you've answered your own question Joel... That's russian roulette. Particularly if it's an older pack of yeast. Effectively it's sitting in 10 degree wort instead of a 20 degree room waiting to start multiplying.

Hope it all works out for you.

Warren -

 

[Ross]

Joel,

As you've found out it's always wise to smack a pack first & make sure it's viable. I've bought a few that have been complete duds. As your 2nd pack did fire, it will eventually start, patience is all that's required now..

cheers Ross

 

[warrenlw63]

I've bought a few that have been complete duds.

Sorry to hear that Ross ... I've been using them since 1998 (one Kolsch pack was actually 3 years old). Given a sufficienct amount of time they'll always fire. May take a week or two but they should be OK.

I reckon even with the freshest XL packs it's a safer bet waiting for them to fully swell then putting them to a starter before hitting your finished wort.

Warren -

 

[Ross]

Warren,

My local hbs has problems with their fridge & the yeast keeps getting frozen - The last one I bought, a thames valley III was smaked for 2 weeks & sat on the stir plate for another 3, absolutley zip - it wasn't sleep'in or rest'in, it had shuffled off it's mortal coil.....

cheers Ross

 

[Gough]

Warren,

My local hbs has problems with their fridge & the yeast keeps getting frozen - The last one I bought, a thames valley III was smaked for 2 weeks & sat on the stir plate for another 3, absolutley zip - it wasn't sleep'in or rest'in, it had shuffled off it's mortal coil.....

cheers Ross

I thought you were your local HBS Ross?? Might be time to turn the fridge down a bit mate...

FWIW I've bought dozens of Wyeasts from the same LHBS as Joel and not had one fail to fire yet... I think the problem here was pitching a wyeast pack that hadn't yet kicked off for whatever reason, without making a starter of any size, into 11 degree wort. As you said Ross, now another pack that had definitely swollen has been pitched into aerated wort it should fire in time.

Shawn.

 

[warrenlw63]

My local hbs has problems with their fridge & the yeast keeps getting frozen -

Not knowing your local HBS I'm sure they would have been more than happy to replace it I'm sure. What I'm trying to say is there's no point shellacking Wyeast per se. More a case of bad handling.

That late inclusion would have fared better in your first post if you know what I mean.

I'm not elaborating on that Parrot Sketch either Ross. Monty Python has gotten me censured on this forum on the odd occasion. :lol: :lol:

Warren -

 

[Trough Lolly]

As Ross mentioned, it's patience that will hopefully see you through - the chorus of "make a bloody starter" is loud enough, and I note you did aerate the wort so that's another potential problem area that you can tick off. 7g of Gypsum is nothing to worry about - if you'd tossed in 7kg of Gypsum then we'd have a problem (Houston!).

Did you have any break material or hop trub enter the fermenter or did you filter the wort during racking to primary? There's an interesting theory in relation to CO2 toxicity that suggest that if there are no nucleation points (solids that allow bubbles to form) in the fermenter, it's possible to saturate the wort with CO2 which affects the yeast. To me, that's another good reason why I don't go overboard in trying to filter out matter when I rack from the kettle to the fermenter. A sure sign of this would be no CO2 leaving solution and hence an inactive airlock or slack gladwrap cover...

Regardless, I'd take a gravity reading and give the wort a rouse with a sterilised spoon and see if your yeast will move into the attenuative phase by itself...At 10C, nothing happens all that quickly!!
Cheers,
TL

 

[Joel]

Thanks for the quick replies, advice, and other inane chatter guys.

I have always in the past pitched directly into wort at fermenting temps, especially for lagers. But I figured that since I had a flash wyeast activator (with 100 million yeast cells) then I could get away without a starter, and my 1L conical flask and stir plate could have a break. I guess then it comes down to 1/2 laziness on my part, 1/2 being pressed for time as a mate and I were going to do two more brews on my rig.

TL,
I don't filter. I just have a pick up tube in my plastic electric kettle. Whirlpooling doesn't work with two kettle elements and a big copper tube sticking out into the middle of the kettle, so a bit of hop debris (even when using a home made hop sock) and break material always makes its way into the fermenter .

I'll go and let it warm up to about 15-16 degrees and rouse the crap out of it. Then cool it back down to 11. Never considered that the yeasties had just gone back to sleep.

Thanks again guys.

 

[Spesh]

www.muntons.com/minibrewing/trouble_shooting may be handy for you.


Slow fermentation

Cause Action

Yeast pitching rate. Pitch more yeast. Normal pitching rate for worts up to 1060. 1.7-3.3g/l (presed yeast, or about double for barm). This can be increased up to 25% to compensate for poor viability.

Yeast pitching time. Pitch after vessel about quarter full of wort.

Low yeast viability. Improve yeast handling. More frequent changes. Acid wash at 4C to remove bacterial contamination, but only every 6-8 generations.
Yeast viability should be at least 90% (target 95%). Store yeast <4C, but do not freeze. Use within 72h.
Slurry yeast in vessels at 1 to 2C.
Pitching temperature: 15 to 17C.

Wort temperature too low/high. Correct at pitching. Too high creates yeast bite.

Wort oxygen level out of specification. Adjust aeration (oxygenation). Rouse and check
Range is 8 - 20 mg/litre. Use 10psi (0.7 bar) air differential at injection point to ensure small bubbles.
Consider using pure (medical) oxygen.
Increase time / vigour of rousing.

Zinc levels too low. Add zinc salt or yeast food. Aim for 0.05 - 0.1 mg/litre.
Levels up to 0.25 mg/litre may be necessary.

Low ambient temperature. Warm up room or vessels prior to use.

Wort cloudy. Optimise copper finings.
Check efficiency of wort separation

 

[goatherder]

hey Joel, has it woken up yet?

If I were to throw my 2 cents in, I'd say you've underpitched the yeast. Pitching rates for a lager should be 2 million cells per millilitre per degree plato of wort. In your case, 2 million x 23000 x 52/4 = 600 billion cells.

I also understand that cold pitching theory for lagers is dependent on adequate pitching rates - you might have had better success pitching warm on this one.