Yeast not working or just slow?

[Griffster77]

Im making some rhubarb wine using the recipe in the River Cottage Handbook.

I pitched the yeast yesterday morning at about 8am and there seems to be no action at all today. By contrast, a wine i made from a kit was bubbling away within just a few hours and is glooping every few seconds.

So do you think I'm just being impatient or is something wrong?

 

[Hagrid]

They can sometimes take a while before they get going. It’s known as lag.

I’ve had a few that I thought were stuck and just left them to it for a while and they’ve all set off.

Rhubarb is very high in acid so possibly the yeast are just a touch slow because of that? (This is where someone comes and says that high acid is a better environment for the yeast and blows my theory out of the water....) haha

Did you sprinkle dry yeast over the must or rehydrate it prior to pitching?

 

[Griffster77]

I actually tried rehydrating it for a while.

 

[Hagrid]

That tends to have better results on the whole. I always rehydrate my wine and mead yeasts.

If it was mine, I’d give it another day or two. If there are no bubbles (on top of the must rather than through the air lock to start with) after that then maybe try pitching again. You can also give it a bit of a stir/shake.

 

[Griffster77]

Im stirring it every day. Ill give it a few days and see what happens

 

[Griffster77]

Something appears to be happening...

 

[Hagrid]

Woohoo! I’d leave them to crack on now.

 

[Griffster77]

On a sidenote, who makes brewing buckets without a volume measurement on it?

 

[Griffster77]

And we've finally got bubbles coming from the airlock! Whoop whoop!

I think most of it was that with 5 litres starting in a 25l bucket, it was slow to full up with gas. Now its filled up, its blooping away nicely

 

[Hagrid]

Haha. I’ve marked mine with a permenant marker on he outside. You can see it through the plastic and it doesn’t come into contact with your brew.