Stout - no froth in the fermentation bin

[SE10PAT]

Hi there

I kicked off my first attempted at a Muntons Irish Stout yesterday afternoon, and after hearing the Wherry lid pop off this morning :rofl: , I had a sneak peak at the Stout. There doesn't seem to be any of the frothy head associated with ales. Is this normal?

cheers
Pat

 

[BigYin]

What temperature is your fermenter at?

What temp was it when you added the yeast?

How much of a stir did you give it?

How old is the kit?

Did you pitch the yeast in dry, or rehydrate first?

Sorry for all the questions, but it's the only way to give guided help at the moment :thumb:

 

[SE10PAT]

yeast was added with the 6 pints of water at the start, the wort was at 24c when i moved it to the spare room. temperature of the bin at the moment is about 20c i would think. I only bought the kit yesterday so dont know how old it would be as such

No, i didn't rehydrate the yeast first

 

[kitoog]

yeast was added with the 6 pints of water at the start, the wort was at 24c when i moved it to the spare room. temperature of the bin at the moment is about 20c i would think. I only bought the kit yesterday so dont know how old it would be as such

No, i didn't rehydrate the yeast first

Not sure if I am reading this wrong but did you add the yeast with the boiling water? if so you need another pack of yeast as that yeast is dead. If you added the yeast at proper pitching temp it could take a day for fermentation to start. When the stout starts fermenting you will get huge frothy head, probably push up through airlock, can be messy

 

[doghouse gav]

+1 on the above. If you added yeast to boiling water then you have killed it. If not yeast can take a while to get going sometimes. :pray:

 

[slowjoe]

hi
iv'e had the same thing a few weeks ago with a thomas coopers stout kit, same thing didn't seem to be any action at all no froth etc, left it in the fv for 10 days the fg was 1010 so i kegged it it was fine taste great. I started another one last friday same thing doesn't seem to be doing anything at the mo but i'm sure this one will work out (hopefully)

 

[shearclass]

In my limited experience, rehydrating the yeast is essential. However, most kit instructions don't even say this should be done.

I did Munton Imperial Stout on Friday night. 18 hours later it was starting to bubble, 24 hours after pitching the foam was pressing against the lid of the bucket. Still got a fairly think foam on top now.

I didn't used the kit yeast though, i ditched it in favour of a Nottingham. Only second time i've used nottingham, but it seems to start fermenting quickly and go like a train for a couple of days. Really fast.

 

[anthonyUK]

So far I've never rehydrated yeast and things have worked out OK.
I put a Fixby gold on yesterday. It's in a temp controlled fridge at 18'c.
Bear in mind this kit was best before end of April too.

Today we have...

 

[Merry]

Just to add to what was said above, If you added yeast with boiling water you'll need to pitch some fresh yeast. I always allow the wort to reach somewhere in the region of 20-25c before pitching.

It can take up to 72 hours for the obvious signs of fermentation to show. I'm halfway into fermenting a Milestone IPA which took 3 days before there were any signs. After 2 days I was beginning to think about re-pitching, but now I'm glad I waited.

If there are no signs I'd take a hydrometer reading to check if anything has been going on before re-pitching just to make sure.

I don't usually re-hydrate the yeast before pitching and have had no problems.

 

[SE10PAT]

thanks all. I will keep an eye on it over the next couple of days and if nothing seems to be happening I will re pitch some yeast. Upside is i'm away next week so the mother-in-law will have to sort out any overflowing froth :clap:

 

[Nottingham89]

I am brewing the same thing but I have loads of froth and its pushing the lid up a lot and there is froth going in the air lock, is this normal? (it bent my lid big time, only started at 9pm last night)

 

[mason]

I only rehydrate Yeasts in kits it specifically says to. No issues so far, just don't chuck your yeast on until the wort is at the temp recommended by the kit.