Yeast Activity in Primary

[Holter]

Hello everyone.

Last Wednesday i created a starter for a Heffeweizen that i was going to brew on Sunday. The starter went off as usual - there was activity up until Saturday night before brew day. I pitched the yeast sunday afternoon and as of yet i have seen no activity in the fermenter. Ive had bad yeast before that i had to repitch and had no issues - but ive never had problems with yeast that was from a starter (which was actively fermenting until the night before the brew).

All the usuals were in order - pitching temperature and sanitation. I brewed three other beers on sunday that had the same exact setup with their own starters, and all are fermenting great in their respective primaries (as have al the beer ive brewed in the past). Im going to be purchasing a replacement vial of whitelabs tonight after work - which im sure will do the trick - but im curious if anyone has any idea why this yeast would be seemingly dead in primary after being so alive in the starter?

Any ideas? (hope that was clear)

[HogieWan]

what are you using for a primary? Bucket? Carboy?

[Holter]

I use a bucket for primary. For my starters i have 2 different growlers.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Holter
I use a bucket for primary.

That's what I thought - you probably don't have the bucket sealed completely. The co2 pushing out will keep the nasties from getting in, so no worries there, but that is probably why you don't see bubbles in the airlock.

[Holter]

I was thinking the same thing, so i pulled the airlock last night to see if there was a krausen and there was not. I just figured that (since ive never actually opened a fermenter) even if the bucket wasnt sealed properly it would still ferment and would still have a substantial head formed on it, but there isnt which lead me to believe that no fermentation was happening. This was an assumption though, am I wrong? BTW when i first checked it the lid was not completely sealed on one side, even though it was still 90% closed, just not locked into place.

[HogieWan]

The krausen could have formed and fell already. The fact that you weren't fully sealed leads me to think the beer is ready for secondary. You need to take a gravity reading to know for sure.

[Holter]

Ok will do. Thanks HogieWan

[Holter]

so i did the gravity reading when i got home last night, and the beer is hovering around 1.04 so its done a small bit of fermenting. Anyway, i siphoned some of the wort out into my growler and pitched a new vial of yeast into it. By the end of the night that starter was bubbling.

This morning i pitched it into the primary and sealed it up, so hopefully when i get home i will still see some activity.

I still however do not understand why the original yeast didnt get to work as usual. The only issue i can think of was that maybe i pitched the yeast when the wort was still too hot - but i always check the temperature before and pitch at around 70 - 75 f. very odd.