Ever have a Smack Pack Smack itself?

I was storing a couple of smack packs in the fridge because I had reused washed yeast and didn't need them. They go in my "beer shelf," which is the top shelf of the door. My children don't have any reason to use that shelf as it's just for my beer. Yesterday I noticed that one of the packs was swollen. Not as big as it would get at room temperature, but something's definitely going on in there. I can't see anything happening to it of the requisite force to break the pack.

Anyone else ever have this happen? I am assuming if I just leave it in the cold the yeasties will hibernate again when they run out of food. Is that correct or should I make a starter with it now and wash the yeast?

Is it PACMAN yeast? Because mines a little swollen as well. Its fine just pitch into a starter when needed

i've had that happen once. worked fine

shamrockdoc said:

Is it PACMAN yeast? Because mines a little swollen as well. Its fine just pitch into a starter when needed

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Wyeast American Ale I actually.

Not yet out of my 3 times getting that 1056 it was only stored for about 12 hours before i brewed...

Yes. Several times the internal pouch had been "smacked"...or it was just never sealed properly. Never prevented fermentation, although once the main pack never swelled up at all, just took about a day to get cranking.

I got one that puffed up and stayed at that point. Once I smacked it I could tell the difference, I think it may have been the expansion of the air inside due to it warming, in my case anyway. Pitched and turned out fine.

I pulled out my Wyeast 1056 pack yesterday from the fridge to make a starter and the pack was already about 1/2 inflated. Seemed to make a fine start though.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/faqs.cfm?website=1#r40
See question 27

-a.