Yeast panic...will this work

So I had a batch of sweet stout that I used a smack pack that was originally for another batch, didn't inflate, then decided to so I used it in this batch. (it was wyeast Irish ale) After pitching I waited 40 hours with no sign of anything at all. I gave up dropped some gunk from the bottom of the conical cus I figured that was where the yeast would settle. I hydrated some nottingham, pitched it and now after 8 hours have fermentation. What effect will this have on the final product? Using two different kinds of yeast, one of which that didn't work? anything bad?

Its probably good for the live one. There are good nutrients in those packs. I wouldn't sweat it either way.

it will be highly poisonous. you should bottle it and ship it to me for disposal.

seriously, depending on how far the first smack pack got in the fermentation, which sounds like it didn't do anything, the end product will have the non-overlaping characteristics of both yeast. nothing bad will happen. considering nottingham is a middle of the road yeast and the first yeast didn't do anything i would say it will have most of the nottingham characteristics.

TipsyDragon said:

the end product will have the non-overlaping characteristics of both yeast. nothing bad will happen.

Click to expand...

this isn't really true. Depending on how quickly fermentation takes off, one strain of yeast will typically dominate in a fermenter. The yeast that is lagging will typically just get lost in the mix and you won't notice much, if anything, from it. Pitching multiple strains CAN produce interesting results, but it is inconsistent and there's not likely a predictable outcome from this.

That said, your beer will be fine.

well hopefully it will work out....looks like active fermentation is about done now and I will secondary it before I go on vacation next week. I just hope it doesn't taste funny