Long story short, I ordered the grain bill below on august 12th and they arrived ten days later (gotta love being in rural Idaho). When they arrived the Wyeast 2308 pack was room temp I immediately popped everything into my beer fridge and sat on it for a month. Its been a week in my fermenter freezer @50ºf since it has been in the fermenter. Yesterday I re-pitched another packet of 2308 yeast (this time driving 2 hours to the brew store) at 1200 0900 this morning I still have 0 activity. OG Gravity 1.050, Today Gravity is still 1.050.
I star san everything, is it possible I had too high of a concentration and the residual has turned my wort into sanitizer?
Before repitching, I raised the temp to 65ºf and I have agitated to aerate it. I pitched and agitated it again yesterday. at the bottom, I have what appears to be a good .5 inches of trub which is confusing as I have 0 change in my gravity. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Grainbill:
8lbs weyermann German munich
3lbs weyermann German pilsner
.75 Tettanger
.3 hellertau
.5 hellertau
Rob, I would like to stick to this yeast as it follows Drew’s recipe,
Denny, I did not, in fact, I have never made a starter. Do I just buy a prescribed amount of malt and pitch into it? Or can I just buy the cans?
IMO, you need to make a starter for any 5 gal. or larger batch with an OG of 1.040 or more. This is the procedure I use and recommend…Old Dog…New Tricks | Experimental Brewing
Gentleman, we have a ferment!!! I apologize for wasting your time! I will be more patient in the future, and Denny I promise to make a starter for my next brew!
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…sometimes a slow start is just a slow start. Especially with 2308. I’ve had many slow starts that ended with great attenuation. Not to discount your point, though. Neither is a given.
Glad you Marzen finally started! In addition to what Denny said about starters, I use the rule of thumb to make a 10 degree Plato (1.040 starter), 100 grams of DME into a liter of water will get you there or very close.
One other thing to keep in mind is the temperature at which you are pitching a yeast starter. The temperature of the wort should be within 10 degrees of the stater temp., or vice-versa (I normally shoot for no more than 5 degrees difference). This will prevent temperature shocking the yeast which increases the lag time while the yeast recovers and acclimates to the wort.
Yeah I pitch yeast straight from the fridge, so even in a lager it’s going into wort more than 10°F warmer. But that wakes it right up. I suppose pitching it into wort much colder than the yeast might slow it down though.
I have found that making a yeast starter reduces my stress level. When I used to just pull the yeast package out of the fridge and let it warm up while I was brewing and then pitch, I found that fermentation started anywhere from about 6 hours to 3 days later. With a starter fermentation is almost always noticeable in less than 12 hours.
I recently listened to an interview from Brulosophy with a rep from Imperial who recommends pitching their yeast straight from a 34F fridge. In fact she was a bit surprised to hear people did it any other way
Perhaps common knowledge but not commonly practiced as evidenced by the large number of home brewers that routinely allow their yeast to warm up before direct pitching
Not nearly common enough. Seemingly knowledgeable people still fervently try to educate others on the supposed dire effects of any rapid temperature change on yeast. There’s still more misinformation than information in the homebrew world.