Wort not fermenting.

[Donoroto]

I agree, anything but glass. Allrounders are popular.

 

[Monoxide1355]

Ok. So that's a bit of a different scenario than I originally thought.

If your beer is indeed starting to ferment, there is really no harm in opening the lid to take a look and see what's going on inside. In your case, I would absolutely do this to confirm you are seeing krausen and nothing nefarious.

You do not need to take another gravity reading to confirm fermentation is active so don't bother with that.

Why you aren't seeing bubbles in your airlock is a bit of a concern, especially if you did see them on previous brews. It's possible your lid or airlock is not sealed properly.

Look into those cheap temperature strips that adhere to the side of the fermenter. They aren't necessarily the most accurate but they do clearly show temperature changes inside the fermenter. They are great for showing when fermentation hits its peak (highest temp) and then when the wort settles back to ambient temp.

Don't bother with glass carboys. They are more trouble than they are worth. Very dangerous, those.

Cheers!

Here is what I found once I opened it, never really looked inside while fermenting so I don't know if this is a good sign or not.

 

[Monoxide1355]

The picture inserted inside of the message I was replying to for some reason. You might have to click expand to see them

 

[Zambi]

It's definitely fermenting
It looks like some milled grain has made its way into the fermenter and has come to the surface?
The others will surely chime in shortly

 

[Craigerrr]

Day four (today) - it looks like that layer on top is getting bigger so I am hopeful that it's starting to kick off. I still have not taken another gravity reading.

Thanks, I will pop it open tonight and check and report back with what I found. There is a possibility the lid didn't seal, it's a really tight fit and i may not have pushed down all the way around good enough causing it to not seal. I'll double check this before opening

If there is a layer there, fermentation is active.
Don't open the fermenter again, and don't worry about whether you are seeing bubbles or not.
Leave it alone to do it's thing, there isn't anything you can do to speed up the process.

Please, please do not get glass carboy's, they are very dangerous.
I can show you some pictures of my relatively minor injury that only sliced off the pad of my right index finger.
Or, you can google glass carboy injuries, or, here is one to save you the trouble looking it up

 

[Monoxide1355]

If there is a layer there, fermentation is active.
Don't open the fermenter again, and don't worry about whether you are seeing bubbles or not.
Leave it alone to do it's thing, there isn't anything you can do to speed up the process.

Please, please do not get glass carboy's, they are very dangerous.
I can show you some pictures of my relatively minor injury that only sliced off the pad of my right index finger.
Or, you can google glass carboy injuries, or, here is one to save you the trouble looking it up
View attachment 29061

Yeah I don't need that in my life. I'll stay clear of the glass

 

[Craigerrr]

The Kegland allrounder is a beauty product, I love mine, but for your current purposes is does not have a spigot at the bottom for draining to your bottling bucket.
These are pretty low cost, probably a reason they offer the lid opener...
Being 7 gallons this also allows you some pretty significant headspace for when you get a crazy fermentation going

 

[Sandy Feet]

The Kegland allrounder is a beauty product, I love mine, but for your current purposes is does not have a spigot at the bottom for draining to your bottling bucket.
These are pretty low cost, probably a reason they offer the lid opener...
Being 7 gallons this also allows you some pretty significant headspace for when you get a crazy fermentation going

View attachment 29063
View attachment 29064

That is what I use except mine is only 6 gallons and no spigot. Wide mouth makes for easy cleaning.

 

[Ken in MN]

I just finished a beer with Philly Wild Sour. It took over a week before there was any signs of fermentation. Its spends the time before that producing lactic acid. It ended up not as sour as I would have like, btw. I had to add lactic acid to get the pH down to where I wanted. Despite that, it turned out pretty good. I'll go back to kettle souring for future sour beers, though.

 

[Monoxide1355]

I just finished a beer with Philly Wild Sour. It took over a week before there was any signs of fermentation. Its spends the time before that producing lactic acid. It ended up not as sour as I would have like, btw. I had to add lactic acid to get the pH down to where I wanted. Despite that, it turned out pretty good. I'll go back to kettle souring for future sour beers, though.

I was already considering buying some lactic acid. I haven't tried the beer yet but I tend to like my sours on the more sour end of the spectrum. I did end up doing another gravity reading at a week in and found it at 1.021 from 1.050 so it definitely is doing something.

What kind of lactic acid do you use and how much do you add at a time to a 5 gallon batch to get the pH to start going down?

 

[Minbari]

only sours I have ever made were in the kettle, pre-boil. used lacto-baccilus for about 5 days then boiled and fermented as normal. it turned out nice and sour and still fermented normally.

 

[Monoxide1355]

only sours I have ever made were in the kettle, pre-boil. used lacto-baccilus for about 5 days then boiled and fermented as normal. it turned out nice and sour and still fermented normally.

Once I get more familiar with brewing (this is only my 3rd brew ever) I plan on doing a kettle sour. This was a kit that came with the Philly sour yeast.
A lot of the stuff I've seen about kettle souring has it left in the kettle for 2 days. Does it create more lactic acid the longer it sits, and if so are there more risks of something going wrong from letting it sit longer like that?

 

[Minbari]

Once I get more familiar with brewing (this is only my 3rd brew ever) I plan on doing a kettle sour. This was a kit that came with the Philly sour yeast.
A lot of the stuff I've seen about kettle souring has it left in the kettle for 2 days. Does it create more lactic acid the longer it sits, and if so are there more risks of something going wrong from letting it sit longer like that?

It does. Really the only thing that can go wrong is infection. You are keeping lots of sugar at 100F , but since it is pre-boil, the risk is low.

They longer you let the lacto do its thing the more acid is produced, the more sour it gets