Forgot to smack Wyeast pack

Quick question; I just brewed a wheat beer and realized as I was about to add the yeast that I'd forgotten to activate it. It's Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan), if that matters. Do you think I can just stick the airlock on the fermenter and add the yeast in an hour or two when the package swells? Will that cause any problems?

Thanks.

You can certainly wait a couple hours before you pitch the yeast. However, if the pack is not fully inflated by then there is not much consequence of just tossing it in.


As per Wyeast...

3. Does the package need to be fully swollen before pitching?

No, The package can be pitched before activating, or at anytime during the activation process. The activation process "jump starts" the culture's metabolism, minimizing the lag phase.
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"5. How long should it take for a package to swell?

If a package is within 2 months of the manufacture date, the package should show signs of swelling within 5 hours and typically much faster than that. When the yeast is stored for long periods of time, they slowly consume their energy reserves (glycogen). When the energy reserves get low, the yeast are slow to produce CO2 and therefore are slow to cause swelling in the package. Improper storage at warm temperatures also has the same effect as long storage times.
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Break the inner packet and pitch it all in now.

Swelling not necessary. It only proofs the yeast.

It'll be like pitching a White Labs vial (without the inner nutrient packet.)





edit to say:
I type slow, you beat me by a minute . . .

So are there any settled opinions on whether it is better (forgetfulness aside) to let the yeast go to work on the in-bag nutrients before adding to the starter, or would the nutrients be better used IN the starter, and just smacking the pack and dumping everything into a starter?

Smacking and letting it swelling really just confirms viability, if you don't have a reason to doubt the viability of the pack you can pitch it without smacking it and be fine.

Thanks everyone. I just smacked it and threw it in. Already bubbling so I think I'm ok.