Fermentation Not Starting!

[White Lightning]

About 3, maybe even 4, weeks ago I started a wash. 15lbs dextrose, bread yeast, and 5 gallons of water (boiled and then cooled to about 80F). After a week of the airlock not bubbling I thought perhaps the yeast was a no-go (I didn't make a starter) so I pitched in some wine yeast (still didn't do a starter). This time I gave it 2 weeks. Still no airlock activitiy! Okay, lesson learned. I'll make sure the yeast is alive. So yesterday I took some yeast I was saving in the fridge from a batch of cider I did, warmed it up to room temperature and fed it. It was alive. I pitched it and a couple of hours later I had airlock bubbles! Success I thought. Well, today I'm back to nothing. I opened the lid and stared at the still, placid top of my yeast filled sugar water.... no bubbles slowly appearing. Nothing.

What gives? I'm aware that you can't always use the airlock as an indicator for fermentation but I sampled some of it yesterday and it was still sweet. I'm also aware that baking yeast won't tolerate much alcohol but I don't think there is any alcohol in there and besides, I pitched some dry wine yeast two ago as well.

I have two theories. One, a witch has cast an evil spell on my bucket and all my yeast. Two, perhaps I did not rinse the bucket well enough after using Star San on it before. Both theories seem unlikely.

Any help?

[Dnderhead]

what about nutrients? and not even going into the 15lbs of dextrose in 5 gal..

[White Lightning]

Oh yeah, I put in yeast nutrient. Forgot about that. 2 tbsps of yeast nutrient as well as a couple of tbsps of lemon juice last week.
Is 15lbs dextrose too much or too little? That is how much I've done before when using Turbo Yeast with no problem.
Thing is, I'm trying to ween myself off of Turbo Yeast. I did a small batch using a recipe very similar to UJSM with baking yeast and had no problem.
I'm rethinking giving up Turbo Yeast unless I can figure out what went wrong here.
To also frustrate things, the bottom of the plastic container/test tube for my hydrometer fell out when I was putting it back in thus causing my hydrometer to shatter on my kitchen floor and I've been too stubborn to replace it. I have no way right now to accurately measure anything.

[White Lightning]

OH, and to be clear, I put the yeast nutrient in immediatly after I pitched the first pack of yeast.

[blind drunk]

That's about 21% abv according to the wash calculator (for sugar anyway) - the yeast got scared and jump outta the bucket to freedom. Could be your ph too - too low. Go over to the Tried and True section and have a look at rad's two sugar washes. They were designed to help with the weening. That's all I could think of ...

[rad14701]

You need to stop pitching yeast and try doing a wee bit of research... That 15 pounds of sugar in a 5 gallon wash has a potential ABV of 21% which is too high even for most turbo yeasts... Any yeast you pitch will die either from the alcohol content or osmotic stress... You needed a lot less sugar and probably more nutrients... The amount of lemon juice might have been a bit much too so you may be dealing with a multitude of problems, including low pH...

You "might" be able to salvage the wash by splitting it into two 5 gallon washes and pitching a bit more yeast and adding more nutrients... You might want to try some tomato paste instead of yeast nutrient... You may also need to check the pH but by splitting and topping to 5 gallons again should raise it just from the fresh water... If the washes restart they will have plenty of dead yeast to feed on... The main concern is that the enzymes from the dead yeast haven't poisoned the washes beyond salvage...

The "greed factor" rose up and bit you in the ass... Head on over to the Tried and True Recipe forum and check out the sugar washes there... My All-Bran and Gerber recipes both provide all of the nutrients the yeast need to fully ferment even a moderately high %ABV yield wash, up to 14% with dry active bakers yeast... Several others will do the same... Keeping the %ABV at or below 14% is the key and most only shoot for 10% - 12%... I run 14% most of the time by using 2 pounds (4 cups) of sugar per gallon...

At this point it's a 50/50 chance that you can salvage what you have there... I'd go through the motions of trying to salvage just for the learning experience...

Good luck...

EDIT: blind drunk posted while I was typing...

[White Lightning]

Thanks. I'll do that. It wasn't exactly "greed factor", It was just lack of thought. I just supplemented baking yeast instead of Turbo Yeast in the recipe I was used to without thinking about how baking yeast wasn't as alcohol tolerant. I'm pretty sure I was given a recipe using Turbo Yeast that called for 15lbs dextrose for 5gal water but I could very likely be mistaken, yet I've done this a few times without any noticeable problems.
So far I've avoided concerning myself with the exactness of PH balances in all my brewing. With ciders and such I've just thrown in some lemons and have never bought a test strip thing. Guess it's time to graduate to the next level and stop F'ing around.