Joseph524

Recipes 

Hello
Made a 5 gallon batch and added the wyeast 1271 American Ale II to it. As i thought do to shipping the yeast was not very active and when pitched had little effect on my brew. So went and bought more and everything seems to be going smooth. However northern brewer asked me to break the other wyeast I had, a little more life in the one. Question is this is an 8.8 AV would it hurt to put this one in and help what is in there already? I got credit on the 2 so price isnt a big deal. Just wondering if it would help or hurt my brew. Thanks

Double_D

Recipes 

If it's already at 8.8% I cant understand why you'd want to put another pack of yeast in there (I'm assuming that's what you mean by "break the other wyeast I had, a little more life in the one?). But no, it won't hurt you're just throwing yeast in there that won't do you any good. I'm thinking one of us has had a few beers too many because I'm having a hard time understanding what you're asking.

Joseph524

Recipes 

I am saying that if I started at 1.082 SG and one pack of the wyeast which didnt do anything. The other pack I have I broke and is just not inflating very much and would not want to use it for a fresh batch. Due to shipping reasons I had a dead pack and now one that might be 50% ok and very slow acting. So I bought fresh to add to my batch and things are going good. Would adding more yeast in the 1.082 SG batch do any good sort of like double pitching. I just didnt want to throw this away but i dont want to mess up the batch I have now. I have only been fermenting for 2 days. I am new to this so brewing stuff, bare with me. Using the Beersmith program it say it should end up about 8.6%.

vtec4me21

Recipes 

Have you taken a sample and seen in the gravity has dropped any (hydrometer reading)? Two days with one pack of yeast, no starter and that high of a starting gravity makes sense that you are getting a longer lag time.

Many like to use this site and it's always been accurate as far as I can tell: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html as it will tell you how much yeast needs to be pitched per batch. According to that site you will need three packs without a starter and two with a starter. That high of a starting gravity will stress just one pack of yeast. I make larger starters with more yeast and a stir plate for higher gravity batches.

Regarding the pack not inflating much, are you sure the smack pack is broken inside, and how long did you let it sit? I've had a few packs that didn't inflate much after a day of sitting out but still were fine when in the starter or pitched directly in the wort.

trumpetbeard

Recipes 

^this. I've had 3 or 4 smack packs never inflate but become active within hours of pitching into a starter