WTH!: Second time for brew to not take off

Panicking too soon, IMO.

 

What was the temperature of the wort? What was the OG/SG? A lot of variables are unknown to help identify the issues. Did you add any chemicals (ie.- Campden tablets). I have had S-04 take a while to start up, I would give it another 6-8 hours but I would try to adjust temperature before adding more yeast.

 

Conventional Wisdom: better to have the first signs of fermentation show up between 12 and 24 hours after pitch than five hours.

 

Agree with Vikeman, you are panicking to quickly. I usually see a krausen between 12 and 24 hours.

 

I hear you. I'm all about controlling the variables that can be controlled. Unfortunately, yeast are biological entities, and don't always follow our expected timetables. Assuming you didn't cook your dry yeast when rehydrating, or rehydrate in distilled water, they should be fine.

By panicking too soon, I mean pitching more yeast before knowing that the original pitch has actually failed.

If almost all of your (other) lag times have been very short, I'd say it (fast starts) may generally be sign of pitching at too high a temperature.

 

<hijack>
I had never read that before about distilled water and I did just that on Saturday . I'm starting to smell that fruity C02 in my spare room so I think my fermentation is ok, but that's good to know for the future.
</hijack>

 

It's pretty normal to not visually see activity during the growth phase. I pitched at 9 pm last night and saw zero activity this morning at 7. That doesn't mean there is no activity and that it's time to pitch more yeast. I know that it'll likely take off by the time I'm home from work or maybe later this evening.

Be patient.

 

I second this, I have had active visable fermentation under four hours and as many as 18 hours.

 

I don't think I've ever had a fermentation start after 5 hours... it's usually a day after that those first bubbles start coming out of the airlock/blow-off tube. Like everyone else has pretty much said so far, wait it out. It sounds like you did everything right, it just needs more time to get going

 

Ideally you'll want to get a bit lower than that for most ale yeast stains/styles, and leave some room for the temperature increase that will happen during fermentation. But if you have been pitching at 70F, that could easily explain the (mostly) fast starts.

 

Definitely too soon to be alarmed. After 24 hours, I would begin to wonder. I might even open my bucket or double check the seals. After 36 hours, I would begin to worry. After 48 hours, I'd think about pitching some backup yeast. If brewing a lager multiply all times by two.

 

HerbMeowing said: ↑
Conventional Wisdom: better to have the first signs of fermentation show up between 12 and 24 hours after pitch than five hours.

There's reducing lag time and then there's reducing lag time.

White Labs considers 12 hours to be a short lag time.

From MoreBeer ...
"Lag time is a common benchmark that brewers use to gauge the health of yeast and the vigor of fermentation. It is possible, however, to overemphasize the significance of lag time, on its own, as a meaningful indicator. A very short lag time, for example, does not necessarily mean that your yeast has gotten off to a phenomenal start and just can’t wait to ferment. It could well mean just the opposite — that a low supply of nutrients and oxygen in the wort gave the yeast no recourse but to begin converting sugar to alcohol in order to survive.

"The latter stages of fermentation may also appear to finish more quickly when in fact the process was not super-efficient, but rather, incomplete. The point is that speed does not necessarily correlate with quality."

In light of that "I also oxygenated for 1.5min with a air stone and O2 canister this time and used Wyeast's nutrient stuff too" = SUCCESSS! Gap closed! Process refined!

 

Just out of curiosity, do you measure or review pH of the water, mash, and wort?

 

May seem like an odd question but what size batch and how much yeast?