Opinions?

[PFDarkside]

I brewed a batch of generic wheat beer Friday, 5lbs. of dry wheat/barley extract and around a pound of steeped wheat, I pitched the White Labs American Wheat Yeast with no starter.

14 hours later it was fermenting slowly, then stopped at about 24 hours. I could see a bit of something in the airlock, maybe yeast, so I took it out to make sure it wasn't clogged. Everything was cool. I had a thermometer in a glass of water to estimate the temp, it was around 60 so I thought maybe it got too cold... I moved it upstrairs and still there is no activity. When I looked inside (plastic fermenter) there was some foam on the surface, but the airlock has no activity.

Should I do anything? It's been 48 hours now, should I get some more yeast, do a nice starter then re-pitch? I couldn't get to it until tomorrow evening, so that will be almost 3 days since I pitched the yeast. I've heard of wheat beers being slower to ferment, but it seemed like it was going yesterday morning.

[ray m]

It sounds to me that your 60* temp was definitely on the chilly side, and probably gave your yeast a case of the snoozers. Wheat beers tend to produce a lot of krausen when the fermentation really gets going, even getting into the airlock. Did you take a gravity reading to make sure it wasn't done fermenting? From what you're writing, it doesn't sound like the brew did much, but it's just to make sure.

Before you do anything else, take a gravity reading. If it's apparent that fermentation really didn't get off the ground yet, warm your wort up to @ 68* to 70*, then aerate the living hell out of it. That should rouse the yeast back into suspension and get things kicked off.

[PFDarkside]

Originally posted by ray m
It sounds to me that your 60* temp was definitely on the chilly side, and probably gave your yeast a case of the snoozers. Wheat beers tend to produce a lot of krausen when the fermentation really gets going, even getting into the airlock. Did you take a gravity reading to make sure it wasn't done fermenting? From what you're writing, it doesn't sound like the brew did much, but it's just to make sure.

Before you do anything else, take a gravity reading. If it's apparent that fermentation really didn't get off the ground yet, warm your wort up to @ 68* to 70*, then aerate the living hell out of it. That should rouse the yeast back into suspension and get things kicked off.
Two questions, what is the proper way to take a gravity reading at this point? How do I get the wort into the hydrometer cylinder without contaminating the batch? Also, what is the proper way to aerate it now, after pitching the yeast?

I have a feeling that the combination of no starter, cool ambient temp and a poor aeration to begin with is what caused this. What is the proper technique for aeration before pitching the yeast?

[ray m]

You can buy a device called "the thief", which is a sample thief that has a quasi-valve at the end. They cost @ $8-$9, I think. It's slender enough to fit down the neck of the carboy, and you can get your sample that way. When you take the thief out, the little valve at the end will close and keep your sample from leaking out. Then, just put your hydrometer into the thief with the sample still in it. Works very nicely---I have had mine for 2 or 3 years.

Aerating your wort now, even with the yeast now in it, will not hurt anything, as long as a good solid fermentation has not begun yet. Just shake the crap out your fermenter for a few minutes to aerate it, or you can use a good sized whisk if you employ a plastic bucket for your fermenter.

To aerate from now on before pitching, I have found that a good sized wire wisk works wonders for aerating. Many folks here use different methods, like shaking/rocking the carboy, etc.

All is not lost, yet. Things will get going, I'm sure.:)

[danno]

ray, put some italics around "as long as a good solid fermentation has not begun yet.", it sounds like there is already some fermentation going, and if there is, aeration will bring out that lovely wet cardboard oxidation flavor... yum.:eek:

[PFDarkside]

Awesome... forget the cherry wheat, here comes the cardboard wheat! Well, the primary is plastic, so I removed the airlock and shook it a bit, I didn't remove the top. I don't think I introduced that much oxygen into the wort, but I stirred up the yeast, and this morning it's fermenting well, in a 68* environment. I guess the basement was just too cold for the wheat yeast, but the Brit Ale yeast is doing awesome down there.

[danno]

for more information, check out "The Yeast Life Cycle" in the BJCP study guide (http://www.bjcp.org/study.html#yeast). oxygen/air is good for the first two stages, lag and growth, and bad during the last two, low krausen and high krausen.

good luck...

[ray m]

Perhaps I interpreted his thread differently. From what I read in his thread, it didn't sound like fermentation really took off for him yet, which is why I suggested reaerating. Besides, I'm not computer literate enough yet to put stuff in italics.:o

[PFDarkside]

Well, I racked to the secondary today (after about 8 days in the primary). The good news, is no wet cardboard! The less than good (but certainly not bad) news is that it could use more hops for sure. I used only Saaz hops for bittering, a touch for flavor and a bit more for bittering would be nice. We'll see after the secondary and the cherry extract is added. If it's pretty tasty I think I'll do another one for summer with the above modifications as well as using the canned fruit puree instead of the little bottle of extract used at botting.

Thanks for the help guys, this is such a great resource for learning. :)