No yeast activity after 36 hours

[Acaciadrian]

So here is the run down, I brewed a rye ESB this Saturday and the brew day went without a hitch. I mashed at 151, hit my OG of 1.054 and was able to cool my worth down to 60(F) within about 15 min. I pitched a single pack of WLP 007 Dry English with no starter due to time constraints 37 hours ago and there is absolutely no activity or gravity drop. The package date on the yeast was from August of this year. I have held the temp of fermentation at 65(F). The only other thing that I did differently this time was that instead of an airlock I just put a piece of sanitized tin foil over the top of my big mouth bubbler. Should I wait it out or toss in some Dry yeast?

Thanks for the help!
-brew on!

 

[Rob2010SS]

So here is the run down, I brewed a rye ESB this Saturday and the brew day went without a hitch. I mashed at 151, hit my OG of 1.054 and was able to cool my worth down to 60(F) within about 15 min. I pitched a single pack of WLP 007 Dry English with no starter due to time constraints 37 hours ago and there is absolutely no activity or gravity drop. The package date on the yeast was from August of this year. I have held the temp of fermentation at 65(F). The only other thing that I did differently this time was that instead of an airlock I just put a piece of sanitized tin foil over the top of my big mouth bubbler. Should I wait it out or toss in some Dry yeast?

Thanks for the help!
-brew on!

How did you aerate the beer before pitching? Insufficient aeration could result in sluggish starts. I would give it till 72 hours personally. If you don't see anything by 72 hours, pitch a new yeast

 

[Acaciadrian]

How did you aerate the beer before pitching? Insufficient aeration could result in sluggish starts. I would give it till 72 hours personally. If you don't see anything by 72 hours, pitch a new yeast

I aerated as I normally do by using the immersion chiller to stir it up and make sure I see lots of bubble in the wort. I know this isn’t perfect but I have had no issues like this in the past. I will go ahead and wait it out a little longer. Thanks!

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

How's it going today? My personal record is 84 hours for a brew that came out fine so don't sweat, yet. As you implied, you under pitched so it will take some time for the yeast to gear up. You can always give it a gentle swirl and warm it up a couple of degrees. 60F is also a bit too cool for 007 so it may have slept a bit before it got to 65. Get it up over 65 and it should kick in if it hasn't already.

 

[schmurf]

Any leaks making air lock activities zero? Have you verified there is no activity with a gravity sample?

 

[Rob2010SS]

So here is the run down, I brewed a rye ESB this Saturday and the brew day went without a hitch. I mashed at 151, hit my OG of 1.054 and was able to cool my worth down to 60(F) within about 15 min. I pitched a single pack of WLP 007 Dry English with no starter due to time constraints 37 hours ago and there is absolutely no activity or gravity drop. The package date on the yeast was from August of this year. I have held the temp of fermentation at 65(F). The only other thing that I did differently this time was that instead of an airlock I just put a piece of sanitized tin foil over the top of my big mouth bubbler. Should I wait it out or toss in some Dry yeast?

Thanks for the help!
-brew on!

How's this going? Any activity?

 

[Acaciadrian]

How's this going? Any activity?

I bumped the temp up by a few degrees and it took right off! I am sure I jumped the gun with the post but had never had an English strain kick of so slow!!

 

[Acaciadrian]

It’s rolling boys and girls! Thanks all for the reassurance! Little adjustment to the temp and it took right off!

 

[kh54s10]

Sixty degrees is pretty close to temperatures that would make ale yeasts go dormant. So until the temperature warmed up a little there would have been very little activity. Also if your yeast was at room temperature when you pitched it into 60 degree wort you shocked them some. Both of these things mean that your real "lag time" was less than total.