Clumping yeast - what did I do wrong?

[czechneck]

On my tenth brew and 4th AG

I used Malt Miller's West Coast Ale Yeast yesterday but after 24 hours it hasn't started fermenting. Instead, I've seen some large clumps of yeast floating in the wort. I've just given it another good stir, to see if the extra oxygen will help. But I'm trying to work out what I did wrong.

- I rehydrated it as per instructions, i.e. at 30C ish except that it was in the solution for a couple of hours before the wort was cool enough to pitch so it would have cooled to room temp (15C) before pitching. Did I let it cool too much?
- Pitched at 25C ish then brew belt kept the wort at 21C overnight. Was this too much of a temperature change?
- I did rouse the wort initially but not all that vigorously because my 25l fermenting vessel was nearly full with 25l of wort - so too much stirring would have meant splashing loads of it over the side. How much rousing is the right amount?

 

[pittsy]

sounds fine , sometimes yeast do this but the shock of being 10c difference may of slowed the start off , 36 hrs is time to worry if no change take hydrometer reading to make sure and re pitch new yeast (but i doubt you'll need to ) .

 

[rpt]

How do you know it hasn't started fermenting? You may be worrying over nothing.

 

[Vossy1]

Does it look like this? If so it's probably nothing to do with the yeast, you've probably used too much kettle finings, what did you use, protafloc...if so this is the result of using too much ...where are the ducks when you need them :lol: ...it makes racking the beer fun...not!

 

[NickW]

Oooops! I usually use between a quarter / third of a protofloc tablet, as near as I can judge. 10 mins before flameout

 

[robsan77]

It's a very slow starter that yeast. Slowest I've seen. Usually takes 36 hours to get going.

 

[markmark]

I pitched 2 packs in to 43 litres of wort on Sunday around noon.
A little bit of activity when I got up on Monday morning and by the time I got home last night around 6 the wort had a nice thick krausen on top :)

 

[czechneck]

Thank you for all the replies.

As it happened, it started fermenting overnight last night, so yes, I think I do have to put it down as a slow starter. Was just very surprised it took quite so long - in the past the lag with other yeasts has been 12-24hrs max

And @Vossy - yes it did look a bit like that, but the clumps were bigger. They easily broke up when I stirred it again. I had no idea that you shouldn't use a whole whirlfloc tablet though. Is this a common problem? I used 1 whirlfloc tablet in the boil, with a vol of about 29l

And by the way, it's bubbling away like a witch's cauldron

 

[markmark]

Glad it is going for you now czechneck :thumb:
I was reading another thread on Jims yesterday about Robs yeast and noted that Rob has increased the pack size on this yeast by 3 grams to get it to start up a bit quicker.

 

[czechneck]

I noticed the pack was bigger, but it was still pretty slow. Seems good now though, and it's attenuated further and faster than I was expecting. It's got down from 1.041 to 1.008 in 4 days - after taking a day and a half to get started!

The krausen is down now, and I usually find that it will drop at least another couple of points. Brewer's Friend reckoned the FG would be 1.011 so I'm pleased with every point below that, because I was aiming for a dry APA style.

 

[jamesb]

And @Vossy - yes it did look a bit like that, but the clumps were bigger. They easily broke up when I stirred it again. I had no idea that you shouldn't use a whole whirlfloc tablet though. Is this a common problem? I used 1 whirlfloc tablet in the boil, with a vol of about 29l

One Whirlfloc should be fine. It's the Protofloc tablets that cause the cauliflower if you use too much.