Smack pack

In a rush to open my box of brewing supplies for an Alaskan Amber clone, I accidentally punctured my smackpack of yeast. Right now, it is sealed in a ziplock and in my refrigerator. Should I activate it tonight and start brewing, or wait until this weekend when I had originally planned to?

If I were you, I'd make a starter.

• Get some kind of juice bottle.
• Clean it well and sanitize it.
• Cut a small piece of foil that will fit over the top
• Sanitize it
• Next, boil 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of DME (dry malt extract) for a minute or two.
• Let it cool.
• Pour the "wort" into the bottle and shake it like crazy.
• Pitch the yeast
• Swirl the bottle every time you walk past

There is a slight chance its picked up something bad. Making a starter is the best way to preserve it and see if its bad. It will probably ferment out in a day and flocculate. You can leave it on the counter and keep swirling it for the next few days, or put it into the fridge. You can You can also brew this weekend like you planned with the added benefit of a higher cell count.

Also, if you don't have extra DME on hand, just take 1/2 cup from your kit. It will be fine.

make a starter.

I agree with most of what Edcculus said except that I would boil the starter wort for ten minutes to kill off any bacteria that might be lurking in the wort then proceed to cooling. Also, use 6 oz. of DME and two quarts (8 cups) of water.

SuperiorBrew said:

4 cups = 1 quart

Click to expand...

Oh, duh. My bad. I was thinking of my measuring cup which is two cups at the time. Two cups=One pint, Two pints=one quart. Sorry about that but thanks for pointing that out. I'll edit my previous post for accuracy.