General homebrew discussion, tips and help on kit and malt extract brewing, and talk about equipment. Queries on sourcing supplies and equipment should go in The Store.
HELP PLEASE
day 3 and still no bubbling I think I have a problem houston!!!!
air lock is in place and lid is definatley sealed but day 3 and still no action
I made a coopers pale with morgans unhopped extra pale malt and hersbrucker hops in a bag plus 1kg of dextrose and added yeast from pack at 27 degrees have i got it wrong or is it just dead yeast and can I save it
my brew lies in your hands gentlemen
cheers poss
Yeh, I just had the same problem. Can you look inside your vessel and can you see a yeast cap? If you can you are away to the races. If not use a yeast energizer and pitch another yeast
again thank you for the prompt reply
did I do something wrong or is it just bad yeast
there doesn't seem to be a yeast cap so off to the brew shop today I guess
cheers poss
Did you use a 1.7kg Coopers pale ale kit plus a can of 1.5kg morgans extract plus 1kg of dextrose? THat will give you a huge OG (and alcohol) in a normal sized batch. (1060+ and about 7.5% ABV by my estimates) Is this what you were after? With high original gravity you can get lots of yeast bursting due to osmotic pressure on the cell walls. (This happens with lower original gravity too, but usually isnt a concern) Or did you use just the extra pale malt and dex?
A couple of tips for future reference and hopefully to avoid this problem happening again, always pitch big. I try to use at least 10g of yeast per 23L batch, and often will use 2 7g packs of coopers yeast. This gets things off to a flying start and reduces the chance for nasty bugs to eat your wort. Rehydrating your yeast or making a yeast starter are also options. There's lots of references available on thest topics.
Good work on branching off from the Kit + 1kg dextrose recipe and using some malt and hops. A couple of recipe comments, intended to be constructive criticism, Hersbrucker are more of a lager hop. Your beer will certainly taste fine, but an ale hop like willamette might be more true to style. Coopers uses the "dreaded pride of ringwood" hops, so if you're trying to nail the green label style those would be the ones to go for. That said, experimentation is at the heart of brewing so please don't think I'm saying your recipe is "wrong", in the end it's your beer.
yes I did use 1kg of dextrose and 1.5 of malt plus pale ale mix and as you say o.g was very high 1.070
this was not what I was going for but again the problems of drinking and brewing and not thinking it through.
I take all your advice with an open mind I am still very much a beginner and apreciate that you guys take the time to reply to our mistakes so now I should pitch a double serve of yeast I guess.
cheers poss
It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Sounds like the yeast was just dead. As long as it's all sealed up so no nasties can get in, you should just be able to buy a new yeast at the homebrew shop, open the top, tip in the yeast and refit the lid. Given such a high gravity (due to all the malt, etc), I'd go for a Saflager yeast, which should be able to handle this gravity.
all is good
I dropped 11g of safale yeast in last night and this morning bubbles ahoy!
there was definatley no yeast cap or froath on the wort before.
thanks for all the advice I thought the ale yeast would be better it being a pale ale. will it cope with the high s.g and with all thats gone into this brew will it take longer it is probably around the 24-26 deg mark
I have on certain occasions like in desperation tossed an ale in for a lager and vice versa. They do the trick you just have to remember what you did (lagering an ale yeast is a cast iron)
