[bendbrew]

First off thanks to everyone who responded to my posts/questions regarding foam stoppers and OG of a starter.  Yesterday, I brewed a "Double IPA"-Extract/Specialty grain recipe.  I miscalculated water additions and ended up with 5.5 to 6 gallons of wort-OG was 1.074.  I racked into the fermentation bucket allowing quite a bit of splashing (racked at 65 degrees).  I then used an O2 canister and stone-three times for about 10 to 15 seconds each-swirling the stone around the bottom via the stainless steel tube.  I then pitched my 1500ml of starter and another fully puffed out pack of Wyeast 1056.  FYI-the starter was created the day prior using a way too high OG starter of 1.065 and a stir plate.  It is now the 16 hours later-early I know but no activity in the Airlock.  The lid is sealed tight, the inside part of the airlock is pushed up.  Should I have any concerns? Thanks-

[bonjour]

In a word, No.

patience is all that is needed.  If you have nothing after day 3, then let us know, but check your gravity first.

[tom]

Sounds fine. What temperature is it at? Get a blow-off tube ready!

[bendbrew]

I am fermenting at 67 degrees

[bonjour]

I am fermenting at 67 degrees

That's a good fermenting wort temp. 

For those that are on the early part of the learning curve,
The yeast don't care what the room temp is, only what the wort temp is, with the difference being 5-10F.

Fred

[bendbrew]

Thank you Tom and Fred-

There is much to learn in this hobby-can be frustrating for the newbie but it is also fascinating.  Shortly after my temperature post, the airlock began to show rapid activity!

Bill

[bendbrew]

Fermentation was extremely vigorous from 9am yesterday till when I got up this morning at 6.  Last night I had to rotate out sanitized airlocks because they were getting clogged.  This morning-airlock clear and not even a bubble out of it.  Lid is tight as is airlock.  Could primary fermentation be that quick?  Yeast is still almost reaching the top of the bucket.

[bonjour]

It could be Bill,
Grab a gravity reading for reference and check it again in a couple of days.

Fred

[bendbrew]

I neglected to take a reading after the one day of vigorous fermentation but here is the latest:  OG on Saturday was 1.073, today, Tuesday with no obvious signs out of the airlock the gravity is 1.035 via the refractometer but 1.023 via the hydrometer (corrected for temp).  I will recheck over the weekend.  I wonder if the higher refractometer reading may be due the yeast in the mix-I let the sample settle before the hydrometer reading).  Thanks for the continued support and advice.

[a10t2]

Are you using a refractometer FG correlation to correct the reading? It can't be converted directly to SG once there's alcohol in solution. (And actually, in my experience, the correlations aren't too good either.)

http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml

[bendbrew]

It was a corrected reading.  I will draw another sample for a reading this weekend.

[bonjour]

If you provide your uncorrected readings we can check that you are correcting correctly. 

Fred

[bendbrew]

Uncorrected:  Brix-9  and SG at 68 was 1.022 

[a10t2]

Assuming an initial reading of 17.5 (to give your 1.073 OG) a final reading of 9 Brix correlates to 1.013. That's using the calculator I linked to earlier, which is the same one built into ProMash (and probably any other brewing software).

[bendbrew]

I got my reading from Beer Alchemy-I am on a Mac.  My original Brix was 18.2 and 9 at my last reading.  For the post initial fermentation, where I got the brix of 9, I took a hydrometer reading as well.  That read as 1.022 at 68 degrees