Wyeast help!

So I am still quite a noob, and I brewed my third batch today. For my past two batches I have used White Labs and even made a starter for the last batch with great results. This time around however, for my irish red ale I ended up used Wyeast activator smack pack. I didn't really know how swollen the pack was supposed to be, and I convinced myself that it had indeed puffed up and I cut open the pack to pitch into my delicious sweet wort. To my dismay, I must have thought I can smack harder than I can, because I found a perfectly intact nutrient pack inside the pouch. Schiße! I thought. Instead of trying to incubate the yeast with the nutrient pack in a ziplock bag or something crazy I decided to pitch the unactivated yeast anyway - and I even cut open the nutrient pack to throw that also into the wort, in case there was some magical needed potion in there that I didn't know about. It says on the back of the smack pack however, "wait for pouch to inflate OR pitch immediately into wort". So am I going to need to buy more yeast? Can a batch start without the full activation of the smack pack?

I think it will be fine. The smacking of the pack is not like a starter anyway...it just lets you 'proof' the yeast and give them a slight head start. You may have a longer lag time than you have when you do a starter, but it should be OK.

1. If you do it too hard, you blow out the bag and yeast goes everywhere.
2. If you do it just right, it will swell up nice and tight.
3. If you do it not quite hard enough, you break one of the two pouches and it swells a little.
4. If you don't do it hard enough, you don't break any it doesn't swell at all.

I usually break one and have to cut the other open.

You'll be fine.

The only Wyeast I ever used, I of course never read the instructions (real men don't need no stinking instructions) until after I had just broke the pack inside and immediately pitched into wort. It was the best hefe I have brewed so far.

You should be fine. You might get a little bit more of a lag time but nothing worth fretting over. The nutrient pack in the smack pack only serves to wake the yeast and get it active prior to fermentation and lets you know if your yeast are alive.. It's not really a starter or anything, though.

Thank you all for easing my worries!

gallagherman said:

To my dismay, I must have thought I can smack harder than I can, because I found a perfectly intact nutrient pack inside the pouch.

Click to expand...

My first brew was an Irish Red Ale and I did the EXACT same thing. My brew log documented it.

That should ease your fears. The beer turned out to have a stuck ferment but that was because it was my first beer and I ignored temp control totally. The purpose of the smack pack is to "show" you that you've got live yeast, they'll still work even if both bubbles never meet.

Hope it turns out well!