Wyeast 1318 London III Lagging

Edison · Jul 22, 2020

Hello all!

I’m not panicking yet, just considering my options, but I pitched this yeast 24 hours ago and there is zero activity yet, confirmed by refractometer readings staying at OG. Has anybody else had a long lag stage when reusing this yeast?

Batch was 19L of 1.052 simple pale ale at a steady 18c, MO and 2.2% light crystal. Yeast is 2nd generation, harvested from previous batch (similar strength and temperature but 12.9% mixed crystal) from dump valve at bottom of conical after crash chilling to 1c. Had been stored in the fridge for about 5 weeks max under some old wort. I brought it out of the fridge at the start of the brew day to slowly rise to room temperature, just before pitching decanted off old wort, added fresh, chilled wort, shook up and after 15 minutes pitched into FV leaving the small amount of settled out trub/dead yeast at the bottom of the jar.

The only difference to my usual practice is I ran out of O2 to inject via a stone, so thrashed up a froth with a paddle for a minute of two before pitching. Normally I see activity and attenuation within 6 hours, hence I’m slightly concerned.
If I’ve still no activity tomorrow I can bubble CO2 up through the wort to stir things up quite easily if this looks like a good option. I don't expect to have any O2 for a week, so that’s not an option, I think I still have an aquarium pump and filter, which I could try, I also have a packet of US-05 as a last resort.

https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/3149299/42-summer-lightning-wip
Any advice welcome!

Edison · Jul 23, 2020

Edison · Jul 23, 2020

Just checked, 31 hours from pitching, zero attenuation. Just gave it 30s of CO2 stir. Here's hoping for some results tomorrow.

Oneflewover · Jul 23, 2020

I know that it's not a very helpful response under the current circumstances, but I'd have made a starter to a) check viability of the yeast, and b) build to a healthy pitch rate.

I've never had a significant lag with 1318 (a great yeast) and would be looking to pitch something else pronto if you don't see any activity soon

Edison · Jul 23, 2020

Thanks, interesting to know it’s not normal (it went off fine from a 1.4l starter initially). I didn’t make a starter because I thought there should have been lots of viable yeast in the jar, at least 120ml of well settled out yeast harvested only 17 days prior to pitching, only 29 days from pitching in the first batch. From all accounts this should have been a healthy pitch of yeast, my only concern was a lack of O2.
I’ve not had a lag this long before so didn’t know how long to wait before serious intervention was required! If I’ve still not seen attenuation this morning I think I’ll give it another stir and some air from the aquarium pump.

Edison · Jul 24, 2020

All is good. I upped the temperature to 19c yesterday morning and it had started bubbling by midday. I can only think it was lack of oxygen at pitching that slowed it down as everything else was pretty much spot on as far as I could tell. Glad the beer is on this yeast and I didnt need to pitch in US-05 as I wasnt looking for that character. No off flavours in the samples so crisis averted I think!