Wouldn't it stand to reason that if you kill all of the pathogens on something, it doesn't matter if it's wet or dry, as long as you use/seal it before more pathogens are introduced?
Yeah, I pitched at about 3 1/2 hours because the last 90 minutes of that it hadn't expanded anymore. It was only about 2 solid inches thick by then. Maybe I got the runts of the litter.
I'm looking at the package and seeing that it was manufactured in February; is that an old batch? I don't...
I have found that my home-brews get me going a little more quickly than a commercial product, but it doesn't seem to last as long. The only thing I can think of is something to do with pasteurization and the existence of the yeast. But I certainly don't see anything to complain about there...
Once again, the infinite wisdom of the Forum prevails. It is now 55 hours out and she's happily bubbling along with some wonderful aromas escaping through the blow off rig.
Thanks, Everybody, for the tender guidance; I'm really looking forward to this beer!
Revvy:
I think I'm just a little impatient here because I haven't yet had a batch that didn't start going nuts within 6 - 12 hours. That, and the new variable of the smack pack.
But that's a helpful analogy. Thanks for the tip!
Yeah, I wish I had put this one in a carboy so I could watch it better but I was worried about headroom. Guess I'll wait it out since I can't do anything til Wednesday. How do these smack packs generally stack up to the other brands?
I brewed a 5 gallon batch of one of Papazian's simple Belgian Dubbel recipes yesterday. OG of 1074. When I was purchasing the ingredients, LHBS gave me a Wyeast smack pack for Belgian Strong Ale. I smacked it, it inflated a little (I don't know how much it's supposed to as I've never used one...