Hello everyone, I'm hoping you can help me.

Two nights ago, we brewed our first batch of beer! Yay! except we realized that something was wrong when we kept checking the hydrometer and could tell that fermenting hadn't begun. We read some more into it and realized that we pulled a beginner's mistake and used distilled water. Yes, I know, the yeast needs minerals... we realize this NOW...

So, how can I save this? I was thinking about taking it out, heating it up a little (hopefully not so much as to kill the yeast) but just enough to raise the solubility a little, and then add in some water salts. The ones that are immediately available to us are epsom salts and table salt. If we added in some of this now, then tried to ferment it again, would it work?

Also would the yeast die off? Would we need to add more in? Would these minerals be sufficient?

Please help!!!!!

Give it a really, reallyy good stir and let come up to 70 degree, then wait 24 hr I bet it will go if not you will probably need a yeast starter

Yeast need certain minerals in water to optimize their performance and stay healthy. Lack of minerals should not prevent the yeast from fermenting your wort altogether.

So, if you've been checking your hydrometer regularly, and you are quite sure that your beer has not started fermenting, then your yeast are dead. Pitch new yeast immediately!

Welcome to the hobby. I sincerely hope this batch of beer turns out to your liking.

Cheers,
Dave

Generally, if you're using extract, the mineral content is not an issue since the extract usually has the necessary nutrition built in. I'm with everyone else. Your yeast are probably dead, pitch more, and pray!

My Brew store sells "yeast nutrient", I think its intended for wine makers but I add it to brews with more difficult fermentables like Honey. Distilled water would probably need some. I read somewhere that table salt can encourage yeast autolysis, though this wasn't mentioned in regard to brewing or adding minerals to encourage fermentation but rather in the context of makeing edible yeast extract spreads to put on toast, like Vegemite, so I don't know if its relevant.

Well, I popped it open, put a teaspoon of epsom salt (MgSO4), and half a teaspoon of table salt in, and sure enough it was fermenting when I checked it this morning. That yeast just needed a little nourishment to get going. Hopefully my first brew, an Irish stout, turns out to be a good one.

~Cheers and thanks for the help!

It's possible that there was nothing wrong with your wort to begin with. You may have just been experiencing excessive lag time that can come from many factors such as pitching too little or unhealthy yeast, pitching at too low a temp, insufficient nutrients, etc. It is especially important when brewing a higher gravity beer like a stout to pitch healthy acctive yeast and enough of it because of the higher density of the wort. There's just so much sugar in there that it can bog the yeast down. If you're using dry yeast, now is the time to stop. Buy the liquid culture (i like the Wyeast starter pack which you smack to break an inner pocket and activate the yeats). Activate it a day or two before you brew and leave it at room temp. This is an easy way to ensure tath your fermentation will start more quickly. Another thing to consider is that your beer is highly succeptable to contamination until the yeast really gets going. I wouldn't recomend taking any hydrometer readings or opening your fermenter until active fermentation has subsided and you have a thick sedament at the bottom of your carboy. Try to use your eyes to see when the fermentation begins. I doubt that the nutrients were the problem here. If you're using extract it will be full of nutrients already, however I would definately not use distilled water in the future. I have alwaus just used tap water and run it the night before so that the chlorine can evaporate. Or filter it if you can. Adding water salts is a good way to ruin a beer if you don't know what your doing. Rest assured though your beer will taste great. Hope this helped.

Let your beer to achieve 70 degree after that you can find yeast over that and also you will not need yeast anymore as you already have.