First total failure of my homebrew journey, and I have no idea why... I was really looking forward to this brew, a pitch-black stout with smoked wheat, chocolate malt and black malt. For yeast, I was anticipating to try Alzymologist's speciality.
However, it's been four days in the fermenter and I've pitched three yeasts – first the Alzymologist (made a starter), then my usual fresh yeast without a starter and for the last desperate attempt some dry wine yeast – I can only come to the conclusion that my wort is poison. Not a sliver of CO2 has been produced. First yeast did produce heat in the wort for a day, but no CO2. Tried heating the wort, agitating and all, but it remains dead.
Some little changes in my process were made – 18 liters instead of 19 for mashing so that I could fit 900 grams extra malt in, and strike temperature up by one degree to 72 °C due to less water and more grain. Tomorrow evening I'm going to have to dump 20 litres of fine wort down the toilet and plan another brew day. Damn, this loss hits like having to bury a pet...
Thanks for the encouraging words :) I guess this one is a goner though, it strangled a fourth pitch of a starter that was certified going strong when I put it in. Even if that stuff did eventually ferment, I'm not sure if I'd dare drink the cursed brew XD
I've been trying different temperatures, too – the setup is not super expensive per se, but it is versatile in that I have the fermenter insulated and can both cool and heat it with an automatic temperature controller (to heat it I borrow wife's hair dryer, it's there now holding 23 °C :D ). My usual fresh yeast is super easy in that regard, I'd normally allow a couple of hours after pitch at the ~25 °C that the wort tends to stand at at that time and then set the thermostat to 15 - 18 °C for the entire bubbly bit, so normally all I need is cooling against heat produced by the yeast.