Stuck (Not Starting) Fermentation

[beardybrewer]

I brewed a wheat beer yesterday and used Danstar wheat yeast. I did rehydrate it, but should have tested it. I can say as well it is so hot the temperature is at 26C. Also, for aeration I used the "surface area" method where the wort from the boiler is trickled down the sides of the fermenter in such a manner as to maximize surface area and contact with air.

So, nothing is happening in 24 hours and I'm worried. When using fermentis I've never failed to have bubble action within 6-8 hours. Either a) danstar yeart was bad, b) temp killed it, or c) aeration wasn't sufficient (although it always has).

This wasn't a huge beer, 1.056og so the one pack should have been sufficient.

So...

I'm getting ready to rehydrate more yeast but I don't have any "wheat yeast". I'm planning on using 2 packs of Brewferm ale yeast or I could use fermentis S-33.

Should I just rehydrate and pitch and hope for the best? It seems against logic to try to aerate again. What should I do?

Thanks for the reassurance!

[Jim]

It might start yet. You might get strange results if you pitch a different yeast type then the original takes off as well.

I'm not familiar with that yeast type, but I would have thought that 24hrs was enough to see some activity at those temperatures.

[beardybrewer]

Ok, I can now verify the hydrometer reading in unmoved since yesterday. So I'm inclined to repitch. Question now is on the re-aerating. I'm thinking of leaving nothing to chance and giving her a shake before repitching. Any thoughts?

[Jim]

Aeration isn't at all critical for dried yeasts, so I doubt if that's your problem.

[beardybrewer]

After a homebrew (or two) I'm a little more relaxed and decided to wait until tomorrow to see what happens. I'll measure again and if it hasn't budged I'll repitch. Interesting about not needing to aerate, I read that in the FAQ on the Danstar website. I had never heard that before.

No, there is no need to aerate the wort but it does not harm the yeast either. During its aerobic production, dry yeast accumulates sufficient amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and sterols to produce enough biomass in the first stage of fermentation. The only reason to aerate the wort when using wet yeast is to provide the yeast with oxygen so that it can produce sterols and unsaturated fatty acids which are important parts of the cell membrane and therefore essential for biomass production

[beardybrewer]

Well we're coming up to day 3 and still nothing. Interestingly, I didn't throw out the trial tube I used to measure the SG and it did start to ferment and was down to 1.020 this morning. But the beer in the fermenter is still quiet. I took another reading and its still 1.056. What now? It seems like it should be viable based on what I saw in the trial tube, but how long should I wait before giving up?

[Jim]

It's been too long now. You need to get some active yeast in there asap.

[beardybrewer]

I added 2 sachets of rehydrated Brewferm yeast, just dumped it in. A few hours later and fermentation was visible, nice karusen and bubble action at this stage.

I wonder, technically, how this affected the beer.