48 hours no activity (WLP-0002) in keg

Simonpyman said:
Yeah patience haha! I’ve never had a yeast take off this slow. At least I have an extra packet of yeast for my next brew
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I have, and more times than not, when I let things run to completion it was a dissatisfying result. I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around 3 of them that failed to finish out and 2 that did finish out and came out as good beer. But the 3rd failure was enough for me to look extremely cautiously at slow take offs.
Especially if the yeast is old, as you indicated. 2 of my yeast misadventures were before I was really keeping track of yeast and ironically both of those finished out good, validating the axiom “it’s better to be lucky than good”. Of the 3 failures, I re-pitched on one of them but late in the fermentation when it really slowed to a crawl - about 1.028-1.029. It didn’t help ... well, maybe it did but the beer finished about 1.020-ish and wasn’t good.

And all of that said, I fully realize that others here on the B/F forum have had success just being patient, but I’m not privy to their process, procedures, materials and ingredients. They could be purchasing fresh yeast for each brew. I usually purchase several strains of yeast well in advance and as a result I tend to purchase ‘rescue’ yeast to have on hand for this kind of event.

I hope this batch turns out well for you and results in a great beer!
 
I only had one batch that did not start, and that was because someone at the store unknowingly gave me yeast from the expired pile/group. The Pure Pitch they use now is basically a double pitch. If it is healthy, it will take off quickly.
 
Dave Y said:
I have, and more times than not, when I let things run to completion it was a dissatisfying result. I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around 3 of them that failed to finish out and 2 that did finish out and came out as good beer. But the 3rd failure was enough for me to look extremely cautiously at slow take offs.
Especially if the yeast is old, as you indicated. 2 of my yeast misadventures were before I was really keeping track of yeast and ironically both of those finished out good, validating the axiom “it’s better to be lucky than good”. Of the 3 failures, I re-pitched on one of them but late in the fermentation when it really slowed to a crawl - about 1.028-1.029. It didn’t help ... well, maybe it did but the beer finished about 1.020-ish and wasn’t good.

And all of that said, I fully realize that others here on the B/F forum have had success just being patient, but I’m not privy to their process, procedures, materials and ingredients. They could be purchasing fresh yeast for each brew. I usually purchase several strains of yeast well in advance and as a result I tend to purchase ‘rescue’ yeast to have on hand for this kind of event.

I hope this batch turns out well for you and results in a great beer!
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Causes me to check the dates on my onhand yeast, I have one packet of US-05 that has a date of March 2023. Think I will toss that one...
 
Pitch it with another one. If nothing else, a yeast nutrient.
 
Craigerrr said:
Causes me to check the dates on my onhand yeast, I have one packet of US-05 that has a date of March 2023. Think I will toss that one...
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Yup! I misread one last year, I thought it said 2025, but it was 2023 when I hit it with a magnifying glass. Fortunately, I keep spares for just this reason, so I did a quick re-pitch and got a good beer at the end.
 
Craigerrr said:
Not worth the potential aggravation
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I'm a cheapskate :)
I hate throwing things out and I'm sure some of my yeasts are older than that. Dunno.
(It's also not easy for me to get another pack, so I take my chances. So far so good)
 
Zambi said:
I'm a cheapskate :)
I hate throwing things out and I'm sure some of my yeasts are older than that. Dunno.
(It's also not easy for me to get another pack, so I take my chances. So far so good)
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Me too, given the choice of throwing out 11 grams of yeast or 20 liters of beer, I will always throw out the 11 grams of yeast
 
Craigerrr said:
Me too, given the choice of throwing out 11 grams of yeast or 20 liters of beer, I will always throw out the 11 grams of yeast
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Makes sense, but...
I'll have a back up pack (although this might be a different yeast) or I'll make a starter if I am really worried ;)
 
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