Help - I don't think my beer is alive :(

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robmohseni

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Hi, I need some advice. It is my first homebrew so it has been a pretty steep learning curve so far!
Basically, I think I have forgotten some vital steps.
1) I didnt re-hydrate my dry yeast before pitching (I watched a tutorial where they didnt do this) 2) I didnt shake the fermentation bucket to oxygenate it 3) I forgot to put vodka in the airlock for day 1 (oops!)
I am pretty sure I pitched at the right temperature (~20-25C) and the SG was 1050. I It is being stored at 23C. After 3 days, I saw no life in the airlock and could see no Krausen formed. This morning I panicked and opened the bucket to take a gravity reading. It hasnt changed so I decided to shake the bucket up a bit to oxygenate it (may have contaminated here I know).
What should I do? Should I re-pitch with some more hydrated yeast? Or should I just wait 10-14 days and test the gravity then?
Any advice greatly appreciated


*UPDATE - I re-pictched with more (re-hydrated) yeats last night - still no sign of activity. I tried to oxygenate the batch too and gave it a good stir with a sterilised spoon
 
Firstly - you don't need to hydrate dried yeast. Some people think it's better to, but many can't see any difference.
Secondly - you don't need to `oxygenate' your wort. I've never done it and never had a problem.

I don't know what you've done to your brew. Either the dried yeast was way out of date and effectively dead. Or maybe you've accidentaly left something in your equipment, maybe whatever you sanitised it with, that's killed your yeast.
After this length of time i can't see your brew not being contaminated in some way. sorry.
 
How old was the kit you was using just incase the yeast was out of date or dead??

1) - no great shakes, a lot of home brewers don't rehydrate..
2) you do need to give plenty of oxygenation for the yeast
3) no great shakes

Now you have repitched and re aerated it I would say leave it now hopefully will start seeing something after 24 hours..

what kit is it?
 
Well you should rehydrate your yeast and you should oxygenate your wort, however not doing those things does not explain why fermentation hasn't started. As mentioned above it's probable that the yeast you used was dead, maybe out of date or poorly stored. After 3 or 4 days without fermentation this may well be a drain job I'm afraid.
 
1) equipment was brand new, plastic bucket off of home brew online. http://www.home-brew-online.com/sta...ter-equipment-pack-co2-injection-barrel-p1312

2) the yeast was ordered about a week before I brewed but I didnt check the label

I am hoping I'll get home to something active but it is unlikely.

Any other suggestions?

Learned a lot even if this first brew is a drain job, it is something I will be doing again.

Cheers
 
Firstly - you don't need to hydrate dried yeast. Some people think it's better to, but many can't see any difference.
Secondly - you don't need to `oxygenate' your wort. I've never done it and never had a problem.

You should definitely oxygenate the wort. If its a kit the act of pouring the water in the to FV can often be sufficient but the more you introduce the healthier the yeast will be.

If you repitched dried yeast last night it wouldn't be unusual to see nothing for 24 hours. I'd give it another day and then if there is still no activity take it from there but you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. As long as fermentation has started by tomorrow I wouldn't pour it out, it is possible that it'll be contaminated but you might as well let it ferment out and see how it tastes, if it finishes at the expected FG and tastes alright you might have got away with it.
 
Personally rehydration of dried yeast is a big no no from me.no need to
You don't need to, but surely it's only nice to make life easier for the wonderful little critters who turn our sugar water into our favourite bevvy?

In all seriousness though, while not essential it does get things going much quicker (overnight as opposed to in 24ish hours going by my brews). For the sake of a few minutes I'll generally rehydrate.



Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
 
You don't need to be qualified doctor to perform a tracheotomy. You don't need sterile surgical implements to carry out a tracheotomy. It sure helps though!

Interestingly, when I was on trial for impersonating a doctor and carrying out bodged operations, I tried to explain my actions to the judge by way of a metaphor. I told him that when, for example, someone might be making homebrew, they don't have to rehydrate dried yeast, and they don't have to oxygenate wort. He looked at me with utter contempt, and muttered, 'It sure helps though!'
 
1) equipment was brand new, plastic bucket off of home brew online. http://www.home-brew-online.com/sta...ter-equipment-pack-co2-injection-barrel-p1312

2) the yeast was ordered about a week before I brewed but I didnt check the label

I am hoping I'll get home to something active but it is unlikely.

Any other suggestions?

Learned a lot even if this first brew is a drain job, it is something I will be doing again.

Cheers

THATS THE SPIRIT!

you have a long road ahead of you full of many failures and many many more success stories, all of which make for a colourful experience
 
There is a good chance that it is fermenting just its doing it on the quiet, you could use a hydrometer and take a reading then in a few days time take another reading and see if they have changed, if they have and it's going in a downward direction just leave it to do its thing
 
Take an SG reading if it's dropped then it's all good. I put a brew on at the weekend, I used re-pitched Mangrove Jacks Workhorse yeast. The previous brew it was blowing the lid off the FV on this one nothing, I even pitched my back up two days afterwards. I took an SG reading and it's dropped through the floor to the point where I'm worried it's infected but it tastes and smells great. What I'd suggest is leave it alone, certainly don't keep popping the lid that's how it'll get infected (especially this time of year). Sometimes it just does what it does quietly. Take an SG reading seven days in and see how it's going and take it from there. Give it a minimum of 14 days fermenting and then look for a consistent SG reading over 2-3 days and then you're ready to bottle/keg.
 
What brew was it - a kit, extract, All Grain? What fermentables did you use? If you can tell us a bit more about the ingredients and volume of liquid used, we might be able to help a bit more.
 
It's an all grain brew. I used US05 yeast and maris otter malt. Boiled down to 4.5galons so I topped up to 6 galons with cold water. I'm going to leave it for a few days and take a gravity reading. If it is unchanged I guess it is a drain job? Cheers
 
Your mash went well as you had an SG of 1050. And US05 is pretty reliable.

I reckon it could be lack of oxygen - this was why I asked which type of brew it was, because you generally don't need to oxygenate kits and extract brews (as the pouring/mixing process does this for you) but in my experience you do need to do it with AG.

First step is to determine where you are - take another gravity reading. Has it moved at all? If it has, the yeast is doing it's work, though it may benefit from a good stir. If it hasn't, again give it a really good stir (I used a sanitised kitchen whisk) and pitch some more re-hydrated yeast, but do a temp check before this just to make sure it isn't too hot (unlikely to be too cold this time of year).

Be guided by your hydrometer / gravity readings, they will tell you what is happening.
 
Although I'd never recommend it, you don't technically need to oxygenate when using dry yeast so that's not the problem. It's very unusual for dry yeast to fail so it's an odd one. As darrell says take a sg reading to see if it's doing anything yet.
 
Well, let's start from the top.
Mashing. You got 1.050 but what kind of sugar is the most important part. What temp did you mash at? If it's above 68 degrees, then you got sugar but not fermentables.
How did you sparge and at what temp. Ideally sparging should be done with 75 to 78 degrees.
Let's go through your technique and fine the issue.
 
I reckon it could be lack of oxygen - this was why I asked which type of brew it was, because you generally don't need to oxygenate kits and extract brews (as the pouring/mixing process does this for you) but in my experience you do need to do it with AG.
Agreed. With AG, boiling the wort drives off the dissolved oxygen, and without oxygen the yeast won't be able to propagate as it should.
 
Agreed. With AG, boiling the wort drives off the dissolved oxygen, and without oxygen the yeast won't be able to propagate as it should.

This is not the problem here, dry yeast does not require the wort to be oxygenated. From Danstar's FAQ:
I always aerate my wort when using liquid yeast. Do I need to aerate the wort before pitching dry yeast?

No, there is no need to aerate the wort but it does not harm the yeast either. During its aerobic production, dry yeast accumulates sufficient amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and sterols to produce enough biomass in the first stage of fermentation. The only reason to aerate the wort when using wet yeast is to provide the yeast with oxygen so that it can produce sterols and unsaturated fatty acids which are important parts of the cell membrane and therefore essential for biomass production.

If the slurry from dry yeast fermentation is re-pitched from one batch of beer to another, the wort has to be aerated as with any liquid yeast.
 
Thanks for the replys guys. I mashed at 65-70C and sparged at 70-80C. Mashed for an hour and sparging took approximately 20mins
 

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