OSH non starter

[wetdog]

I brewed an Old Speckled Hen from GW's book yesterday. Everything went well, hit the 1.050 OG as stated in the book.
I sprinkled a sachet of Safale S-04 into the wort. It wasn't until after that I noticed the empty yeast packet didnt smell right. It had a sort of synthetic, plastic smell to it, nothing like yeast at all. Anyway I left it for 24 hours and not a bubble to be seen.
I thought about it and decide to put another sachet of safale in, this one smelt fine. On hindsite I should maybe have racked the wort first.
So now Im not sure what to do other than leave it and hope for the best. Should I rouse it at all or maybe rack it and try another yeast. should I aireate again? I've never had this happen before.
the first sachet was dated april 2010 and the second October 2010

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I'd leave it and see what happens.

[Kev75]

Hi Wetdog,

Any signs of life yet?

Regards

Kev

[Whorst]

Weird, the packet I used in my Porter was dated October 2010 and it took 28 hours for activity to start. I mentioned this in a previous post as it's very unusual for Safale-04 to behave like this.

[wetdog]

I'm happy to say that the second packet has started working although it took 48 hours and is still chugging along days later. not the rapid ferment that is typical of S-04 as Whorst says.
Im going to leave it a week or two to make sure it ferments out then try a sample to make sure the first batch of yeast hasn't done any damage. Definately seems to be one back from the brink though

[wetdog]

UPDATE
this spent about 10 days in the primary where lumps of what can only be described as 'dogmeat' were floating around in it.
I scooped as many out as I could then racked it to another fermenter. More chunks of Pal were sat at the bottom, on top of the healthy yeast. Some got sucked through into the racked batch.
After a few days in the secondary, there were still a lot of tiny bits floating near the surface so I decided to rack again through a gauze and add finings but when I racked it, hardly anything got caught in the gauze and a sample showed the beer to be crystal clear and tasted fine so I didn't bother with the finings. I'll leave it another few days then put it in a cornie 'till Christmas.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

and tasted fine

Sounds like success

[Piscator]

UPDATE
this spent about 10 days in the primary where lumps of what can only be described as 'dogmeat' were floating around in it.
I scooped as many out as I could then racked it to another fermenter. More chunks of Pal were sat at the bottom, on top of the healthy yeast. Some got sucked through into the racked batch.
After a few days in the secondary, there were still a lot of tiny bits floating near the surface so I decided to rack again through a gauze and add finings but when I racked it, hardly anything got caught in the gauze and a sample showed the beer to be crystal clear and tasted fine so I didn't bother with the finings. I'll leave it another few days then put it in a cornie 'till Christmas.

It's ususally a sign that copper finings (protoloc or whirfloc) carried over into the FV where they remained active - and instead of grabbing trub in the boiler they grabbed the yeast.
Sometimes it looks a bit like cauliflower cheese!

I've found that this effect varies depending on how late I add the copper finings and how energetic the boil was.

Cheers
Steve

[Philipek]

UPDATE
this spent about 10 days in the primary where lumps of what can only be described as 'dogmeat' were floating around in it.

That sounds revolting. However, I've often seen quite nasty looking things in my fermenting beer, always thought it was trub, but it could well have been copper finings messing with the yeast as Piscator suggests. I use Irish Moss.

I have to keep reminding myself that when I'm pitching yeast I'm actively causing a yeast infection.

[wetdog]

I think that's the most likely thing as this is the first time I've used a whirlfloc from Barley Bottom and it was added 20 minutes from the end of the boil. Not sure how to get around this though, I don't want meaty chunks in every brew so I might try leaving the trub to settle out for half an hour after cooling to see if that helps