First time using A24 imperial yeast- lagging

[LilYeasty]

Hey guys,

First time poster, long timer reader. Thought I would share my NEIPA status. It goes not so great.

Been about 25 hours since pitching yeast into about 76-78 degree wort. I quick-cooled it down to 64 by turning fermenter on blast (about 3 hours on).

it got down to a good temp and I realized that some of my sani from the 3-piece got sucked into the wort. Not much, probably and few drops because air lock is barely below the “fill to here” line.

So on to the problem: Still no bubbly good stuff. My yeasties ain’t happy.

anyone know if this yeast is a slow starter? Kinda like me

thx guys. Guess I just gotta wait and pray.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, it’s an El Dorado, Citra, Mosaic whirlpool 1oz/each at 160 and 3oz/each at 140, also a five min addition of about 10g/each.
Stoked....

 

[AzOr]

Look at the date on the Imperial package is the only thing I can think of. It's still a bit early to worry though.

 

[day_trippr]

Don't want to appear sacrilegious, but my experience with Imperial yeast consistently indicates prayer is not necessary, just a modicum of patience

Cheers!

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Ive used A24 lots, its my go-to for NEIPAs at the moment. I always make starters for it and overbuild them for about 3 generations. regardless of generation though, Ive always had signs of fermentation at about 12hrs post pitch and its absolutely RIPPING at about 24hrs post pitch. If under pitching, the delay in "ripping" is a little longer. But no signs of fermentation 25hrs? Not sure but Ive always pitched at 68 with this yeast and not 78 as you posted. I don't let it get over 74 (as measured by my ink bird strapped to the outside of the fermentation vessel which has an error compared to the actual wort of about 1-1.5deg from my experimentation). SO Ive never let it get hotter than your pitching temps. Not sure if thats the issue here though. Did you make a starter or just pitch the pack?

 

[LilYeasty]

Ive used A24 lots, its my go-to for NEIPAs at the moment. I always make starters for it and overbuild them for about 3 generations. regardless of generation though, Ive always had signs of fermentation at about 12hrs post pitch and its absolutely RIPPING at about 24hrs post pitch. If under pitching, the delay in "ripping" is a little longer. But no signs of fermentation 25hrs? Not sure but Ive always pitched at 68 with this yeast and not 78 as you posted. I don't let it get over 74 (as measured by my ink bird strapped to the outside of the fermentation vessel which has an error compared to the actual wort of about 1-1.5deg from my experimentation). SO Ive never let it get hotter than your pitching temps. Not sure if thats the issue here though. Did you make a starter or just pitch the pack?

Thanks for the input. I just threw it in, like it says. Don’t even warm it up. I like that idea. it worked on my Loki and Barbarian batches.
I brought it inside to warm her up a bit, thinking the 62-64 degrees stalled her out. Hopefully she’ll be bubbling by tomorrow, if not I have another Loki I might try...

 

[LilYeasty]

Thanks for the input. I just threw it in, like it says. Don’t even warm it up. I like that idea. it worked on my Loki and Barbarian batches.
I brought it inside to warm her up a bit, thinking the 62-64 degrees stalled her out. Hopefully she’ll be bubbling by tomorrow, if not I have another Loki I might try...

 

[LilYeasty]

For your stater do you use DME. And how much ?

 

[Noob_Brewer]

I use brewers friend yeast pitch rate calculators to determine this as the magnitude of DME needed is dependent on several factors: OG of wort, volume of wort, and age of yeast pack.

 

[LilYeasty]

About 32 hours later and we have liftoff!

Any suggestions on how many hops to add 2 days into fermentation for the “bio transformation”? I was thinking 6oz total of El Dorado/Citra/mosaic each... and then 6 total (2oz/each) after ferm is complete... any thoughts?

 

[RCope]

Skip the "bio transformation" dry hop. Been there, done that, and moved on. I'm not alone. If you can soft crash your yeast out after fermentation is complete (dropping temp to 55ish) with a good technique to mitigate oxygen ingress via suck back, then add your dry hop post ferm. I think a 6 oz dry hop in a 5 gallon batch is enough with an OG around 1.060 or less. Others may disagree. 12 oz is way overkill...

If you can't mitigate suck back (CO2 bag or positive CO2 pressure or spunding) then adding your dry hop at the tail end of fermentation is acceptable. Not ideal, but it will decrease oxidation at the cost of hop aroma and flavor...Oxygen will kill your NEIPA. A closed transfer is encouraged.

If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, you have a bit of research to do

 

[LilYeasty]

Yep. I know what you mean. I do closed transfer: purge all transfer line and keg after sani bath... But the suck back, that's where my problem lies. Honestly, I've been cold crashing without noticing that happening for the last year... is that why my beer sucks? haha. I was thinking either do one of two things: 1)slowly lower by 5 degrees every day or so (UGHHH!) or 2)crash that **** like normal and just deal with air getting in there and sani too; and once at the cold temp of 40 degrees (lowest my fridge controller gets) then blast the carboy with c02 and add some more friggin' hops for shits n gigs? Typing this made me realize that I don't have my **** together... So I guess I need a co2 bladder for that, huh? I need to research spunding.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[LilYeasty]

So this yeast (A24) was pretty vigorous after it got started. Took more than a day to start but it has stopped bubbling on day 3. The OG was 1.068 and I still see some swirling going on in there but the airlock has like one burp a minute. So I added my 6oz dry hop charge.

My question is: the temp is about 68-70 degrees and getting colder by a few degrees. Is this a good temp to dry hop?