Home brewing lager fermentation not starting and its been 36 hours!?!
Any more details needed?
Answers: Trying my first lager... I pitched a tube of White labs American lager yeast at 74.7 degrees. Its been 36 hours and no activity has been observerd yet. Should I worry? Should I pitch some dry lager yeast if it doesnt start in the next few hours? Room temp is 68-69 (just to get fermentation started) OG was 1.040.
Any more details needed?
1) Possible old yeast.
In the case that your yeast was old, there may not have been a viable number of live yeast cells to start off fermentation. White Labs recommends use within 4 months, and to use a starter if the vial is 6-12 months old. This is with proper storage in a refrigerator.
2) Possible Temperature Shock
If the yeast was not removed from the refrigerator and allowed to warm up to room temperature (~2hrs), there could have been a temperature shock to the yeast as well.
3) Slow unnoticeable fermentation
Some White Lab yeasts don't have a vigorous, violent fermentation. They recommend stirring/sloshing the fermenter to help agitate it. You can also take a gravity reading to see if it has gone down any. An OG of 1.040 is fairly low, and at ~75% it is possible for a beer to ferment out with out much noticeable activity. Check your current gravity to see if there have been any changes.
4) If no fermentation has taken place, quickly pitch the dry yeast. A quick start on fermentation helps prevent other bugs from getting hold of your beer and spoiling it. Proper sanitation and sealing should be keeping your beer safe for the most part, but getting some viable yeasts in there will help most.
Good luck and hopefully everything turns out well!
It should be fizzing like crazy in an hour. Your mix is dead.
I'd say that it's worth trying to pitch the dry yeast.
How did you steralise your fermentation vessel? If you used camden tablets in solution, it's possible that if you didn't rinse it out properly, any residue could kill the yeast.
One possibility that nobody mentioned is that you could be relying on the airlock as an indicator and don't have a tight seal on the fermenter. Peek inside to see if you have any foam.
Did you start with the tube of yeast culture going straight into the wort or did you make a starter? [I know; I am too lazy to make starters, myself.] The yeast may just be slow in getting started. If all else fails, I'd try to get more liquid yeast of the same strain. Dry yeasts aren't as good.
It sounds OK. Lagers can have longer lag times. I would try to keep the fermentation at 60 so that you keep an active fermentation going once it starts. It can take up to 10 days to finish. Just check the gravity for a few days to ensure it is finished. Then you can lower the temp and keep it in about 32 deg for a few weeks to lager it.