Wyeast 1028 London Question

I bought this yeast roughly 3 weeks ago and am about to use it momentarily. I did the smack activation about 4 hours ago and it appeared to have swelled a little, but no where close to how 1056 has been for me in the past.

My question is, has the yeast gone bad/is it not activated? If I go ahead and pitch it and don't notice any fermentation, can I just pitch another packet without any problems/what would happen?

Thanks all!

bump?

Is it at room temp? Have you agitated the package? If you answer yes to both of these questions and are still not seeing the swelling that you expect you are still probably okay. I believe the package tells you that it may not swell completely. If you saw some swelling and are pitching into a WELL AERATED wort you will be just fine... What is your expected OG?

It should be good yet. If it is one of the small packs, you should make a starter; if it is the big one, you'll be fine once it swells.

Do you hear bubbling inside the package? As long as you haven't opened it and let it sit, it hasn't gone bad. You can pitch another of the same strain to the wort with no issues.

it's been sitting at room temp for about 5 hours. Definitely swelled a little bit, but not like I had seen with 1056. Didn't agitate it. Pitching it in like 5 minutes.

1.063 og. doing a toasted coconut vanilla porter. Thanks for the feedback!

putting my mind at ease. rdwhahb

At 1.063, I would have done a starter. Your beer will be okay, but it would be good practice to make a starter at that temp.

I use 1028 a lot, it's one of the few yeasts I save and re-use. Its not as active as 1056, I can tell you that, but I don't recall if the pack swells as much because I haven't used it from a pack in a long time.

Starters/culturing/reusing yeast is my main area of interest for the next stuff to read up on and get down. thanks once more for the input all!

I've only used 1028 once, but it took quite some time for it to swell for me. I'm certain you'll be okay though as mentioned above, Wyeast says not all packages will sell yet can still be pitched. Good luck and I hope the porter turns out great!