First Brew - No Fermentation - Suggestions??

[EnviroMan]

I'm new to home brewing. I began my first batch with a Brown Ale kit. Sanitized everything with the provided no-rinse sanitizer. Cooking went well. I put the brew in the fermenter and noticed through the air lock that no fermentation was occurring.

The fermenter was stored in my basement which was probably colder than it should have been. After several days I took the brew and put it in an upstairs closet to get it warmer. Still nothing happened. After that I poured more yeast into the beer. Still nothing, barely any foam is on top of the brew.

I'm ready to dump the 5 gallons out. Any suggestions on what could have gone wrong, or if I'm missing something all together?

 

[devonjordan]

Just because its not bubbling doesnt mean its not fermenting, the only way to tell is with a hydrometer reading...

 

[PT Ray]

Is it in a bucket where you wouldn't have been able to see any fermentation? If it is a bucket was there a crusty ring on the inside? If you didn't have the lid or air lock sealed well the co2 may have escaped through a path of lesser resistance.

 

[Nurmey]

Welcome to HBT!

The only way to know if fermentation has or is occurring is to take a hydrometer reading. It is very possible that you missed it entirely or it is in there chugging along and you have a leak letting the CO2 out (very, very common).

Don't even think about tossing this batch.

 

[el_bandito]

Don't toss it out! ... Some fermentation goes a lot slower than others, just because you dont see it bubbling doesn't mean its not working.

Take a hydrometer reading and verify the yeast is working.

 

[iron_city_ap]

Definately hang in there. Being patient I think is one of the most important lessons you can learn. I had a similar experience with my first batch. What I figured out was that I didn't aerate the wort well enough. Take out the airlock, cover the hole, then slosh the bucket around pretty good for a bit. Reinsert the airlock and let it be.

 

[sheldon123]

I also just started my first brew, about 10 days ago. For the first 2 days I had a blow off tube connected and it was bubbling away just fine. Then I replaced the blow off tube with a sanitized airlock/stopper, and now the top half of the wort looks like dark brown liquid, and the bottom half looks like a light brown mush, and nothing seems to be happening. Should I be seeing bubbles, or foam on the top, or anything at all?

 

[Revvy]

Don't be a fool and dump your beer....

First, fermentation can take up to 72 hours for the yeasties to start, it's called lag time. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/

But by visible signs they DON'T mean airlock activity.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2.

If your airlock was bubbling and stopped---It doesn't mean fermentation has stopped.

If you airlock isn't bubbling, it doesn't mean your fermentation hasn't started....

If your airlock starts bubbling, it really doesn't matter.

If your airlock NEVER bubbles, it doesn't mean anything is wrong or right.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on. It's exactly the same thing when you try to go by airlock....

You'll be much happier if you get out of that habit...you will find that fermentations rarely don't take off, or just Stop...In fact I've never had a beer not ferment. BUT half of my fermentations, spread out across 9 different fermenters, never blip once in the airlock.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years..

So, Relax, then wait 72 hours and take a hydrometer, and you'll see, more than likely that everything is fin...it is fine 99.95% of the time.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I would assume by the fact that you see some foam on top that there is fermentation going on. Otherwise, you shook the beer too much.

 

[iron_city_ap]

I also just started my first brew, about 10 days ago. For the first 2 days I had a blow off tube connected and it was bubbling away just fine. Then I replaced the blow off tube with a sanitized airlock/stopper, and now the top half of the wort looks like dark brown liquid, and the bottom half looks like a light brown mush, and nothing seems to be happening. Should I be seeing bubbles, or foam on the top, or anything at all?

What are you fermenting in that you can see the top and bottom halves of your batch? Like mentioned before, a hydrometer reading is the best way to tell, but I wouldn't touch the beer until it has been going for a week. Check it, then leave it alone for another week or two, or rack it to a secondary. Either way, you want to check the hydrometer reading, but not too frequently because you will risk bad things happening to the beer if you keep poking at it.

 

[sheldon123]

Thanks for the advice, I am fermenting in a glass carboy, so I am able to see the top and bottom halves. It's been going for about 12 days now, and nothing really seems to be happening. I plan to leave it for another week or so and then bottle it. I just ordered a hydrometer and will test it as soon as I can.

 

[Revvy]

Thanks for the advice, I am fermenting in a glass carboy, so I am able to see the top and bottom halves. It's been going for about 12 days now, and nothing really seems to be happening. I plan to leave it for another week or so and then bottle it. I just ordered a hydrometer and will test it as soon as I can.

Please don't even think about bottling UNTIL you use your hydrometer. You can't just arbitrarily decide to do something....You actually are not in charge of the beer, the yeast is...No recipe, or another brewer, or book, nothing can tell you when your beer is done, except your hyrdomter.

You just stated you don't THINK fermentation is happening, so if that is the case, then why the hell would you THINK you would want to bottle it?

In Mr Wizard's colum in BYO awhile back he made an interesting analogy about brewing and baking....He said that egg timers are all well and good in the baking process but they only provide a "rule of thumb" as to when something is ready...recipes, oven types, heck even atmospheric conditions, STILL have more bearing on when a cake is ready than the time it says it will be done in the cook book. You STILL have to stick a toothpick in the center and pull it out to see if truly the cake is ready.....otherwise you may end up with a raw cake....

Not too different from our beers....We can have a rough idea when our beer is ready (or use the stupid 1-2-3 rule which, doesn't factor in things like yeast lag time or even ambient temp during fermentation and do things to our beer willy nilly, like moving it too early, or thinking our beer is going to be drinkable at 3 weeks....but unless we actually stick "our toothpick" (the hydrometer) in and let it tell us when the yeasties are finished...we too can "f" our beer up.

You can't really do something arbitrarily, you have to learn to "read" your beers, the hydrometer is the best way to do that.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading FIRST is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on. It's exactly the same thing with our beers. The hydrometer is what should be your lead in what to do.