Fermentation Fail

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 20, 2023
Messages
280
Reaction score
390
Location
Telford
Apologies in advance s I know this topic has been covered a lot.
Short story - fairly sure I’ve cocked up my latest brew.

Brewed yesterday. I was on a fairly tight schedule due to commitments we had in the afternoon, but just about had enough time. All went fine and hit numbers, but after a couple of mishaps, it took longer than I intended. Short story, I had to chuck the hopstand hops in at FO, chill down to around 50 degrees and then leave to cool at its own pace while we went out all afternoon. Got back late, transferred to keg and pitched a pure pack of WLP041.
Here’s the problem. Only noticed when about to pitch that the yeast was only a month off best before date. I should have stopped and made a starter at this point to pitch today, but having extended cooling I wanted to pitch ASAP.

As it’s only around 16L of 1.042 wort, I thought I might get away with it.
No sign of fermentation by this evening. Still may come, but my question is this, assuming the yeasts viability was low, how long could it take to get going and, by proxy, how long should I realistically give it before giving up on it and throwing something else in?

I’m fairly new with liquid yeasts but love the character they bring to English styles and this is the first issue I’ve had.
Any help appreciated.
 
Are you sure you have a good seal on your fermenter? Happened to me before that the fermenter lid wasn't fully closed after a dry hop and I thought my fermentation had stalled.

Had another similar mishap with a tap on my lid (I tried using it for a semi oxygen free transfer technique) that wasn't fully closed.

If you're definitely sure it's not that, and you aren't seeing any fermentation then get some extra yeast in there at 48hr like @Rwilts says.

I will say that I've used yeast way past the bbe date and it's worked just fine. Can't see why an in date yeast in 16L of quite a low gravity beer would fail completely.
 
My last brew, the yeast (Philly Sour) was so slow to get going, i thought it had failed. Maybe because I'd forgotton to oxygenate.
So repitched, after 48hr, with Nottingham starter. But the the vigorous stir to oxygenate before repitching, using a wine degassing (drill) paddle, released lots of CO2 bubbles.
So realised ferment had started, but still threw in the new starter anyway.

Have since seen posts recommending co-pitching Philly Sour & Nottingham.
And the brew, a Spider Monkey clone, has turned out to be one of my best to date. And it's going to be my first, to get brewed, twice in a row (the order's in now)!
 
I've used White Labs yeast after its best before date and also within a couple of weeks of it. The former I made a starter, the latter I pitched direct. Both came out fine. I even harvested some from the starter and have used that since too.

Edit: Anybody else noticing drastically slow speeds on this site?
 
I will say that I've used yeast way past the bbe date and it's worked just fine. Can't see why an in date yeast in 16L of quite a low gravity beer would fail completely.
I've used White Labs yeast after its best before date and also within a couple of weeks of it. The former I made a starter, the latter I pitched direct. Both came out fine. I even harvested some from the starter and have used that since too.

Good to know on both counts. First time I used white labs I was a bit sceptical about the viability claims, but results have been good so far.

Can’t blame the airlock for this one as it’s in a corny keg with a sounding valve on the gas in post. I am wondering if some gas is escaping the seal on the lid as it does usually need a shot of pressure to seat it properly.

I’m now getting a slight hiss from the PRV on the lid, so good signs somethings beginning to happen.

If nothing happening with the spundy tomorrow eve (48 hours) I’ll check inside for any krausen..
 
Bugger the bubbles... Look at it. Sniff it.

Get or order another yeast (proper dried stuff 😁) as a backup NOW. If it does fail you can then recover it... a week in Christmas post and the wort could be lost.

A starter would have made no difference. In fact probably detrimental.
 
Think I may not have gotten away with this one after all. Five days after fermentation started its only down to 1.029 from 1.041.
I’ve bumped the temp up a couple of degrees.
If no improvement tomorrow, would it be too late to throw a sachet of dried yeast at it? I’ve got some Midland and Five in the fridge…
 

Latest posts

Back
Top