Pitched last night, need help!

Another vial might be a good idea...I generally make a starter for any beer over 1.055 to ensure I have enough yeast to start. Throwing one vial into a 5 gallon batch of 1.080 wort is serious underpitching

 

One vial in a 5 gallon batch of 1.088 wort? Yeastcalc.com suggests a pitch of around 318 billion cells, or more than three brand new vials.

The yeast you threw in is presently stressed and in their growth phase where a lot of the off flavours come from. I'd toss in a pack of rehydrated S-04 as it is similar to what you pitched already and cheaper than two more vials. Normally beer should take 12-24 hours (or a little longer) with a correctly sized pitch to show signs of fermentation, so that is normal. In fact in your case I'd be surprised to see action inside of 48 hours due to the low pitching rate you used.

Also, I'd re-aerate the wort through agitation (or pure O2 if you have it) as the oxygen will help them further with their growth phase and hopefully complete fermentation.

Next time make a starter.

 

Yeah, a starter would have been a good idea, but what's done is done. In this case, the yeast are reproducing to get the to the point that they can ferment. You can pitch more, but at this point the esters and whatnot are already there. I would recommend RDWHAHB and leave the beer in primary for an extra few days to a week. They then might clean up come of those messes.

 

I think that the best thing to do would be to add active liquid yeast. I'd make a pint of 1.030 wort and let the yeast sit in there for a few hours. Second choice would be re-hydrated yeast. But you probably don't have either.

So I agree with kjyost. But I'm not sure what type of equipment you have you have. Mind you that just shaking now won't do much good. You need to add oxygen into the head space. If you have an aeration/oxygenation system then no worries, but I'm guessing that you don't. So take off the lid off of the bucket or the air lock out of the carboy and cover the openings with tin foil of something so dust doesn't fall in. If you have a bucket you could probably just let it sit as is until a day after fermentation starts. If you have a carboy I'd let it sit for a few hours, then cap and shake. I'd do that until when you're finished shaking to start to see additional foam rising. The addition foam will be CO2 being knocked off of active yeast. If fact now that I see you have dark malts, about the third shake I'd just give it a small swill and let it rest before you progress. It's my guess that the dark roasted malts helps to knock the CO2 off the yeast easier. Pre-active fermentation I always give my carboy a nice roll on it's bottom. With stouts/porters a dormant carboy can turn into a volcano.

 

You under pitched, but that early in, I'd expect little results.

For instance, I brewed a DIPA last week end, early Sunday. I was in a hurry to get to the CC for my tee time that afternoon, so I planned to pitch after I got home that late afternoon and it all be okay.

Well, I pulled my IC out and splashed some water into the kettle lifting it out. Fuck. Not much, but enough to get me worried about needing to pitch sooner than later so the yeast could get a head start before anything else.

Rehydrated some new BRY-97 West Coast Ale yeast. I was lazy and didn't want a starter for the beer, so I bought two packs of the dry yeast. Rehydrated it, got a slurry and pitched it fast after aerating the wort. Tossed it in the swamp cooler and ran off..

I have NO activity, not even some light foam on top until late Monday evening.. Over 24 hours, and I over pitched on accident in my hurry. Point is.. under pitch, over pitch.. sometimes it doesn't matter.

Get some US04 in there maybe tomorrow, re hydrate it and pitch it. You'll need it, and it won't hurt anything anyways.

 

The US-04 is the same thing. It'll have more viable yeast cells than your vials and much cheaper.