When do you declare lag time is done and fermentation has begun?

[kontrol]

I'd like to know when can you declare the lag time is done and fermentation has begun?

Last brew I threw a good cell count, oxygenated with my new O2 with .5 micro stone and pitched at 19c (66f) and kept at 19 the whole time with my new fridge and stc-1000 controller.

I ferment in a plastic bucker with no air lock. This is a special bucket designed to let the CO2 out but no air in. The top of the bucket has a bump inside when pressure build up. At 6 hours I didn't notice the bump but didn't paid attention I was more looking for a krausen.

So 16 hours after the pitch I could see a very tiny krausen ring and a bump in the lid. Cool.

This all lead me to the question at the top. Is it when there is a 1 inch krausen? Or you notice bubble coming out of the airlock (In my case a bump or a sign of pressure inside)?

I'd like to know because I want to know if my lag time was fine for the control I had on my fermentation. And to compare it to other future time.

 

[TheMerkle]

Sort of an unorthodox question. Hard to answer definitively. I'd say lag time is over as soon as you recognize evidence of fermentation. That said, 16 hours is certainly healthy.

 

[flars]

Yeast lag time has many variables. The temperature the yeast is pitched at, the optimum fermentation range for that yeast, the temperature the wort is held at, the OG of the wort, the yeast pitch rate, the yeast health, and...
I'm sure there is a lot more. Your best way to determine when fermentation is begining is with a flashlight. Shine it throught the side of the bucket to look for a krausen ring forming. Opening the bucket every few hours would risk contamination

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Impossible to say. None of this happens perfectly sequentially.

Imagine it like a whore house, dinner club, hotel. Some are happy to lounge and watch while getting up the courage. Some are making attempts to reproduce. Other have already ordered and started to eat. A few have already gone to sleep. All of this, at some point, happens at the same time until everyone has gotten laid, eaten, and gone to sleep.

Is there a time when the majority are doing one thing or the other, sure. But the transition between is rather vague. It's not like this is a transcontinental cruise, and fortunately it never ends with vessel on fire.

 

[grem135]

Impossible to say. None of this happens perfectly sequentially.

Imagine it like a whore house, dinner club, hotel. Some are happy to lounge and watch while getting up the courage. Some are making attempts to reproduce. Other have already ordered and started to eat. A few have already gone to sleep. All of this, at some point, happens at the same time until everyone has gotten laid, eaten, and gone to sleep.

So glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that..

 

[TheMerkle]

All of this, at some point, happens at the same time until everyone has gotten laid, eaten, and gone to sleep.

This is genius

 

[woozy]

Imagine it like a whore house, dinner club, hotel.

No-one is ever going to top that.

I'd like to know when can you declare the lag time is done and fermentation has begun?

I think it's semantics. Fermentation begins the instant the very first yeast cell converts the very first sugar molecule probably within one or two seconds of pitching. Lag time is is just a general term meaning the time until fermentation because somehow significant. Well, what does "significant" mean? It's a bit like determining when a social trend becomes a trend. Is it a trend when 20 million people do it? Does that mean it wasn't a trend when only 19 million people were doing it?

I think you can "declare" fermentation *begun* when *you* can first see any sign of it. The first swirling yeast stream, the first bubble, the first bit of krausen spit. Whatever. It's when you can *know* that you actually do have yeast chomping away in there and that you package hadn't been sterile.

As for lag time... declaring lag time over is to declare fermentation has begun "in earnest"; when you know fermentation has not merely started but is also not going to roll over and die without getting anywhere significant.

I'd suggest selecting any arbitrary bench-mark and sticking with it.

 

[Cyclman]

Lag time is a part of fermentation, the yeast are aclimating to the environment, taking up minerals and oxygen, etc.

It is like starting a run off slowly- you are running, but not very hard. The real activity starts after the warm up, most noticeable by CO2 production (the notorious "bubbles in the airlock").

But getting laid, eating, and going to sleep has a better analagous quality to it.

 

[OkashiiBrew]

Nice point Cyclman. But then the rest phase, conditioning and aging stages are all part of fermentation also. Too much to think about, I need to get some phase 1 and go right to phase 3! If you can't see or measure what is going on, you just have to guess or go with what information you have. It is Schrödinger's cat all over again

 

[unionrdr]

I'd say lag time is over when you see visible signes of fermentation. Yes,it is progressive insomuch as it starting off slow for a few minutes to an hour (ime). Then it gets going in ernest with all the bubbling,etc. Since you don't see visible fermentation till the yeast produce enough cells for the batch in question,I say that's when you can count lag time over. That's the generally excepted way.

 

[kontrol]

Cool thanks guys. So no "absolute" answer, but yeah I'll keep checking for a tiny krausen ring like I've been doing since I started.