36 hrs and no activity

[brew703]

Brewed a pale ale on Saturday. Pitched a vitality starter of 1056 at 445 pm Saturday. Wort temp was 62 degrees. Aerated with pure O2 for 60 sec.

At 36 hrs still no activity.
The slurry was from a harvested batch from May. Didn't see any indication the yeast was not good. The color was creamy when pitched.

What would be the absolute max amount of time when I need to re-pitch or toss the batch?

Palmers book says if no activity after 24 hrs then there could be an issue.

Brew day went according to plan so the only issue could be the yeast.

I do have a pack of US-05 that I could rehydrate this afternoon but that would take at least another 12 hours before activity. That would put me at close to 3 days,

Thoughts / advice please.

 

[myndflyte]

What do you consider activity? Did you check if there was krausen? Or are you going on airlock activity? If the latter, no airlock activity doesn't necessarily mean no activity. You could always take a gravity reading and check.

 

[brew703]

There's neither. Wort looks like it did when I racked to my carboy. I've never had liquid yeast take more than 12 hrs to start. This is the 2nd time I doing a vitality starter- 1st time took about 8 hrs to start so this one kind of baffles me.

 

[RM-MN]

There's neither. Wort looks like it did when I racked to my carboy. I've never had liquid yeast take more than 12 hrs to start. This is the 2nd time I doing a vitality starter- 1st time took about 8 hrs to start so this one kind of baffles me.

It's time to take a hydrometer sample. If the gravity hasn't changed you add the dry yeast.

 

[myndflyte]

It's time to take a hydrometer sample. If the gravity hasn't changed you add the dry yeast.

Yup, I agree. That'll give you the final word on what's going on here.

 

[dmtaylor]

Brewed a pale ale on Saturday. Pitched a vitality starter of 1056 at 445 pm Saturday. Wort temp was 62 degrees. Aerated with pure O2 for 60 sec.

At 36 hrs still no activity.
The slurry was from a harvested batch from May. Didn't see any indication the yeast was not good. The color was creamy when pitched.

What would be the absolute max amount of time when I need to re-pitch or toss the batch?

Palmers book says if no activity after 24 hrs then there could be an issue.

Brew day went according to plan so the only issue could be the yeast.

I do have a pack of US-05 that I could rehydrate this afternoon but that would take at least another 12 hours before activity. That would put me at close to 3 days,

It is odd that a vitality starter didn't work in 36 hours. My advice: Just sprinkle that pack of US-05 on top right now. No need to rehydrate, totally unnecessary.

 

[The_Bishop]

I don't know if that's a good idea this time; the wort has already been sitting for 36 hours. Anything that can minimize lag at this point is a good thing.

 

[str1p3s]

I just brewed a brown ale that had no krausen and no airlock activity. Baffled me to no end. I took a sample and it was definitely fermenting though. I'm going to rack it to a keg in a week or so. I've had no airlock activity before, but never no krausen. I've done around 20 batches.

 

[brew703]

Thanks for the info. I'm at work and will not be home until this afternoon. My wife goes home for lunch so she can check it. Hopefully she will tell me that there's activity.

 

[g-star]

It is odd that a vitality starter didn't work in 36 hours.

Its not odd at all. Vitality starters need at least a decent population of viable cells to start with. 8 month old yeast slurry does not have that.

Pitch the dry yeast.

 

[brew703]

Update: Fermentation has started.

 

[jinjorge]

Update: Fermentation has started.

not much room in that carboy. guessing it's 5 gallon

out of curiosity (and off topic) - what does your blowoff setup look like?

 

[brew703]

not much room in that carboy. guessing it's 5 gallon

out of curiosity (and off topic) - what does your blowoff setup look like?

I over-filled my carboy which is why I added the blowoff.
it's a stainless steel tube I ordered from Amazon and just sits in a liter jug of starsan. The stainless tube is much nice and easier than a hose I used to use.

 

[brew703]

not much room in that carboy. guessing it's 5 gallon

out of curiosity (and off topic) - what does your blowoff setup look like?

Here's a link to the tube:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MX1I50Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[jinjorge]

Here's a link to the tube:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MX1I50Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing