No signs of fermentation

I feel like a beginner posting this question, but I’m conflicted on what to do. I brewed an AAL on Saturday, and direct pitched about 600 ml of slurry of WLP838 I had harvested maybe 6 months ago from a Baltic Porter. It was against my better judgement, but I didn’t have a chance to make a starter, and my LHBS has limited hours right now that don’t work for me, so I figured it would be fine.

It’s been about 72 hours now, post pitch, and I see no signs of fermentation. I took a gravity reading and see that it has dropped from 1.046 to 1.043 adjusted for temperature. I pitched just below 50° And let it rise to 52° after a day or two of no airlock activity. Just roused the fermenter and set my ferm chamber to 55° before I go to bed hoping that will kick things into gear.

Should I pitch the sachet of US-05 I have in the fridge if there’s still no activity tomorrow afternoon (approaching 4 days with little to no activity)? I would have done it already, but I really wanted this to be a proper lager.

 

I had that thought as well, especially since I know some people even co-pitch a blend of both ale and lager yeast. There are certainly worse propositions.

 

Not really. My LHBS doesn’t open until tomorrow for curbside pickup, and even if I managed to get a pack, I wouldn’t have time for a starter, so I’d imagine another long lag. I wish I had at least some w34/70 on hand. Definitely going on the shopping list.

I checked this morning, and I’m seeing some bubbles rising to the surface, so maybe rousing and raising to the top of WL recommended temperature range did something. But I’m thinking it could just be co2 coming out of solution from agitating the fermenter last night/warming it up a few degrees. I’ll check it this afternoon and repitch tonight if there are no further signs.

Definitely a cheap lesson, so not a total waste either way.

 

Well I just checked again and it looks like krausen is starting to form. When I looked originally, after about 72 hours, the wort/beer was very clear, almost like the yeast had competed fermentation and settled out. Now this:



This complicated things a bit, as I was expecting to see nothing and proceed to pitch more yeast. Now that there is some activity, not sure if I should let it ride?

 

I just thought that whatever caused it to stall in the first place may happen again after only dropping a few more gravity points. But now that I think about it, I bet pitching cold caused the yeast to stay dormant, wasting 72 hours sleeping. Now that it’s up and moving, hopefully it’ll stay that way, as if I’d just pitched warmer to begin with.

Trust me, I won’t be pitching a slurry of any age again, even into a low gravity ale, nevermind a lager. Lesson learned. I’m usually pretty fanatical about yeast health/cell count, but had a spontaneous brew day and thought it would be fine. Guess I was wrong.