Help. No bubbling in my fermentation.

I would take a gravity reading before doing anything else. Bubbles (in the airlock I assume) are a poor indication of fermentation. If your talking about lack of krausen (foaming yeast on top the beer), that is more worrying. Sometimes it comes and goes quickly though, and you could have missed it if you didn't check for a couple days.

Take a gravity reading, and if it hasn't changed from your original gravity, pitch more yeast.

 

I agree with the rest of your post but a little but more info would be helpful before pitching more yeast.

What yeast strain did you use?
What temp is the beer fermenting at?
What was the OG of the beer?
Has the gravity changed?

I have a beer that just began active fermentation 2 days ago after zero activity for 2 days even though I pitched the proper amount of yeast, used nutrient, and oxygenated the wort. The problem, I was fermenting a bit too cold.

 

Was the temp controlled, and what yeast, and temp did you ferment at?

What was the original gravity of it?

I'd check the gravity before you worry about anything. If it's the same, then the yeast was no good, and you'll need to pitch more. If it's lower, or where it should be for the FG, then it's obviously working and/or done depending on your reading.

Don't go by bubbles. Krausen, krausen ring on the sides, and yeast rafts will be telling if something took place, otherwise the only sure fire way, is to compare the gravity when you pitched the yeast, to the gravity sample you take now.

 

Check gravity, as others have said. If you are using a beginner rig of a plastic bucket, there is a decent chance the bucket is not airtight, and the CO2 that built up just floated away.

 

What's up with racking to a 2ndary after one week in the primary?

 

Not the smartest thing to do, but I've seen on here and on HBT that most of these local and online store recipes give a specific time frame, versus just instructing people to take proper gravity readings. Probably due to the large amount of beginners that don't have a hydrometer.

 

Not having a hydrometer is the best argument for not racking to a 2ndary after one week in the primary.

 

You could try giving it a nice warm bath and see if that wakes the yeast up. I've done it a few times when I wasn't seeing a lot of activity within the first 72 ours and I usually get co2 bubbles within a few minutes of warming it up.

If that doesn't work, repitching new yeast might be your best bet.

 

its an indication of whether the yeast have gone to work on the fermentables in your wort. Take a sample before pitching your yeast and take a hydrometer reading. Then, after X amount of time, or if your worried that the yeast havent taken off, take another sample and reading. If the reading is the same as your intial reading, or very close, you may have an issue, if its lower than your initial reading then the yeast have been working. You can also calculate what your expected final gravity will be based on your wort and the yeast your using, and if youre not close to that after X amount of time it may indicate an issue somewhere depending on how far away you are.

 

FYI - I would be suspicious that this is just CO2 coming out of solution, and not necessarily an indicator that fermentation has re-started. I have had good luck with rousing and warming yeast in slowed fermentations, so I wouldn't change your technique. Just an FYI

 

Mag00n's explanation is correct. Your Original Gravity (OG) reading in comparison to any subsequent reading after that one, all the way to your Final Gravity reading (FG), will tell you if any fermentation is occurring when you look at these readings. It's a foolproof method to help you eliminate stress when you suspect a problem with the fermentation process.

However, your lack of understanding of the specific gravity and how important it is kind of tells me that you don't currently have a hydrometer. I can't stress enough how important that little device is to the homebrewer, so I suggest that you get one before you brew more batches.

 

Everything linked from the first page of this link will help with that...
https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+use+a+hydrometer