Hi all, a crucial step slipped my mind and am now paying the price. Can anyone please advise given the following:
I brewed a kit of Coopers Canadian Blonde, with:
1KG LDME
1kg grain and grape blend (500gm Dex, and 500gm LDME) (I know, a lot of sugar, but I just kept pouring)
Cascade and Amarillo hops
reconstituted (a couple days before, and it was vibrant and well alive) Wyeast 1056 i'd harvested from previous batch.
OG - 1.050
It's been in primary for 5 days now... there has not been a single bubble come out (that I've seen). There is no krausen at all. The current hydrometre reading, though, is at 1.012 ...??
Other important note: I pretty much forgot to aerate the thing. Stupid I know but there you have it.
The only other thing I can think of that could be a problem, is that I may not have sufficiently cooled the wort before pitching yeast, but at worst it was probably at 28 or 30?
thanks for any help or advice. I've shaken the fermenter a couple days ago, still nothing. It's been sitting at 18/20 for the past several days, so temp's not a problem. I'm sure it's the lack or aeration, and everything I read is, Don't aerate now, it's pointless. Please help! thx/kanga
No fermentation - or is there?
Re: No fermentation - or is there?
i'm guessing you had a healthy starter, and fermentation got finished really quickly - perhaps with a leak in the fermenter lid, so no bubbles. 1.012 is as far down as i'd expect those ingredients to get.
don't stress. it honestly seems as though it's just finished already.
also, aeration, while still useful, is not critical for kit/extract, unless you're boiling the whole volume of wort. boiling the water drives out the oxygen, meaning it NEEDS aeration. running cold tap water to "top up" aerates as it comes in, and is already moderately aerated anyway.
don't stress. it honestly seems as though it's just finished already.
also, aeration, while still useful, is not critical for kit/extract, unless you're boiling the whole volume of wort. boiling the water drives out the oxygen, meaning it NEEDS aeration. running cold tap water to "top up" aerates as it comes in, and is already moderately aerated anyway.
Re: No fermentation - or is there?
Huh. Thanks... that's positive news!! The stuff tastes great straight out of the hydrometre! 
Aiming for a kind of LCPA/SNPA sort of thing...
I thought of the leak factor, but the gentlest push raises the water in the lock. Still possible tho i suppose.
Also, although I thought that the FG at 1.012 meant the yeast had done what they were told to do, the lack of bubbles and any krausen meant, it just didn't happen. Another way of saying it (and I am still very much a newbie) is, the two observations seem totally contradictory: the 'right' FG, but no physical action seems to have taken place. Would a superfast ferment (as in, it all happened while I slept, and the next day when I was at work) also result in little or no krausen? That's about the only explanation I can come up with.
Very odd to me, but maybe not to experts here.
Anyway, I'm sticking with it, will bottle it soon, and see what i get.
Aiming for a kind of LCPA/SNPA sort of thing... I thought of the leak factor, but the gentlest push raises the water in the lock. Still possible tho i suppose.
Also, although I thought that the FG at 1.012 meant the yeast had done what they were told to do, the lack of bubbles and any krausen meant, it just didn't happen. Another way of saying it (and I am still very much a newbie) is, the two observations seem totally contradictory: the 'right' FG, but no physical action seems to have taken place. Would a superfast ferment (as in, it all happened while I slept, and the next day when I was at work) also result in little or no krausen? That's about the only explanation I can come up with.
Very odd to me, but maybe not to experts here.
Anyway, I'm sticking with it, will bottle it soon, and see what i get.