Worried about fermentation.

[Brewrowe]

Greetings,
So this is my second batch of home brew and I am making a 5 gallon batch of dunkleweizen. The first batch I used a dry yeast and fermented in a carboy and the fermentation lock was bubbling within 24 hours. So this batch I used a wyeast that I activated and the bag swelled before pitching. (I noted the date was 4 months old but th e wyeast website says it's good for 6 months. Anyways, after not seeing bubbling for 3 days I cracked the lid and could see signs of fermentation and it smells fine. My question is if you have bad yeast can beer just partially ferment? When should I take another gravity? Add more yeast?
Thanks for any help

 

[chub1]

Greetings,
So this is my second batch of home brew and I am making a 5 gallon batch of dunkleweizen. The first batch I used a dry yeast and fermented in a carboy and the fermentation lock was bubbling within 24 hours. So this batch I used a wyeast that I activated and the bag swelled before pitching. (I noted the date was 4 months old but th e wyeast website says it's good for 6 months. Anyways, after not seeing bubbling for 3 days I cracked the lid and could see signs of fermentation and it smells fine. My question is if you have bad yeast can beer just partially ferment? When should I take another gravity? Add more yeast?
Thanks for any help

Personally although i do use an air lock i don't take much notice of it.They don't always show bubbles,depends on if your FV is totally airtight ,if not then in all probability it won't bubble!

 

[J A]

Your beer should be fine. I'd leave it alone for a week or so before checking gravity.
Good luck!

 

[Brewrowe]

Personally although i do use an air lock i don't take much notice of it.They don't always show bubbles,depends on if your FV is totally airtight ,if not then in all probability it won't bubble!

Thanks, that's reassuring. Do you know if it would hurt anything adding yeast after 3days other than risk of contamination?

 

[chub1]

Thanks, that's reassuring. Do you know if it would hurt anything adding yeast after 3days other than risk of contamination?

Listen,i am no expert believe me,however i would leave it alone as you have seen signs of fermentation!
I have recently been using a new Yeast manufacturer over here in the UK along with many others and we have all found that all of the yeast strains go off like a rocket and then go quite after that. Some are slow workers some are quicker,that much i have learned.

 

[jmcnamara]

Relax, don't worry, have a home brew (or maybe a good commercial brew if you don't have any lying around)

A single yeast cell and enough time, and you can ferment just about anything

 

[Mase]

The yeast being 4 months old, although viable, has more than half of the +/- yeast cells still alive. That means you are only starting out with half the yeast needed. That doesn't necessarily hurt anything, but it may take a while longer.

As suggested above, gravity readings are your friend when in doubt if fermentation is happening.

Also as suggested above... relax and have a beer. We all learn something new each day. For example... I put up a yeast starter of Wyeast 1028 last night. Haven't used this strain before, but after smacking and 3 hours... not much inflation in the pack. I pitched it with a starter wort and put it in a stir plate. Checked this morning and took a gravity reading with refractometer to see if any activity occurred overnight. Nope. Dumped! Wyeast 1056 backup is now in the stirplate and bubbling away!

 

[GFHomebrew]

+10 give it time relax and have another brewski .

 

[Brewrowe]

Thanks for all the posts! I've decided I'm going to wait since it looks like it's fermenting at whatever rate it wants Very helpful tips and I guess I'll just have to drink a few more from the first batch home brews!