Gravity suggests fermentation, visuals do not. Requesting assistance.

[Affineo]

I accidentally left a packet of liquid yeast at room temperature for about 5 hrs before activating it. I then activated it, made a starter, and pitched the following morning. The starter definitely was active as noted by the 'beery' smell and sediment at the bottom of the container. It's been three days now and still no krausen. OG was 1.048 and currently 1.024. Gravity would suggest fermentation, but I don't have tell-tale signs of it otherwise. Pitch some more yeast to be safe or let it ride?

 

[progmac]

which yeast and what are the temps?

sounds like an english strain in the low to mid 60s.

i imagine it is fine.

 

[JonM]

Are we just talking about the starter? If so, it's doing it's thing as shown by the drop in gravity. I rarely see krausen on starters.

 

[LandoLincoln]

If your OG was 1.048 and now it's 1.024, then either the yeasts are eating the sugars or the beer gnomes are up to something insidious. Maybe they're stealing some wort and are replacing the lost volumes with water. I hate those guys.

 

[Affineo]

which yeast and what are the temps?

sounds like an english strain in the low to mid 60s.

i imagine it is fine.

Wyeast 1084. Pitched at 75, currently at 70degrees

 

[Affineo]

Are we just talking about the starter? If so, it's doing it's thing as shown by the drop in gravity. I rarely see krausen on starters.

No, talking fermentation bucket. No krausen on the brew at the moment despite the drop in gravity. Cause for concern?

 

[JonM]

Nope, sounds like it's working just fine.

 

[flars]

I accidentally left a packet of liquid yeast at room temperature for about 5 hrs before activating it. I then activated it, made a starter, and pitched the following morning. The starter definitely was active as noted by the 'beery' smell and sediment at the bottom of the container. It's been three days now and still no krausen. OG was 1.048 and currently 1.024. Gravity would suggest fermentation, but I don't have tell-tale signs of it otherwise. Pitch some more yeast to be safe or let it ride?

How many hours was your starter working? Did you use a stir plate? It seems like you are talking about a very short timeline for the starter. You may not have propagated as many new cells as you calculated.

Your brew may turn out okay, just take a little more time.

 

[rklinck]

No, talking fermentation bucket. No krausen on the brew at the moment despite the drop in gravity. Cause for concern?

I rarely, if ever, see krausen in my brews because I tend not to check them until the most active stage of fermentation is over. As someone already said, if the gravity has dropped from 1.048 to 1.024, then it is fermenting. If anything bad was going to happen (e.g., wild yeast taking over, unhealthy yeast throwing off off-flavors), it has already happened. But 99% chance that everything is going along just fine.

EDIT: Well one thing is not going along fine. You are fermenting this very warm. English/Irish ale yeasts are very estery if fermentation temp is above mid-60s, so you are going to end up with some wicked esters in this beer. But maybe that is what you are after.

 

[Affineo]

How many hours was your starter working? Did you use a stir plate? It seems like you are talking about a very short timeline for the starter. You may not have propagated as many new cells as you calculated.

Your brew may turn out okay, just take a little more time.

Starter was going about 16 hrs before pitch. No stir plate, just manual swirling as often as possible.

 

[ResumeMan]

If the gravity is dropping, it is fermenting. That is the metric; the rest is just for your viewing pleasure. Let it ride.

 

[BigFloyd]

It sounds like you have fermentation aplenty going on there.

The best thing you can do now is leave it completely alone for another two weeks.