My yeast pack was broke upon arrival

Just got my ingredients from NB and my wyeast was already inflated...I'm brewing around 8 tonight...what should I do with it until then?? leave it out on my counter? toss it in the fridge for a while? it's 2pm now, I'm not brewing for 6 more hours

Oh, when you said "broke" I thought you meant there was yeast spilling out of the package.

No, you're absolutely fine. This kind of stuff happens all the time. It's a bit too late to make a stater, which is what I would have recommended doing (which you should do for every batch anyway.)

Call them. They are great to work with. Their first question will be if it's 1056. If your response is yes than they will tell u it's normal. The co2 is released due to the heat. Flip your yeast upside down and feel in the corner for the smack pack. It should still be inside not broken with fresh nutrient for your yeast. If i got way ahead of myself and it's not the above mentioned yeast. Call nb and they will send a replacement no problem.

Reno_eNVy said:

Oh, when you said "broke" I thought you meant there was yeast spilling out of the package.

No, you're absolutely fine. This kind of stuff happens all the time. It's a bit too late to make a stater, which is what I would have recommended doing (which you should do for every batch anyway.)

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I freaked out way too early...I realized the smack pack hadn't actually broke. I'm guess the heat of the delivery truck must have made it inflate a bit more than usual. I threw it in the fridge and it's already coming down a bit.

No starter...I'm making a sessionable pale ale. trying my hand at a Brau Brothers Hopsession clone. it'll only be an OG of 1.045ish. I didn't think I really need a starter for it.

We are brewing a Lakefront Bridge Burner on Sunday though...That guy will DEFINITELY need a starter!

Thanks for the quick response though!

Good to hear you're taking it easy now

But as far as starters go.... if you're using liquid yeast you should always make a starter (unless you're intentionally underpitching to get a lot of esters/phenols.)

Mr. Malty yeast calculator shows a 5 gallon batch needing 153 billion yeast cells... the wyeast smack packs only have 100 billion and that's under perfect conditions (i.e. production date of today, plus strict temp control.) Most likely you're not starting with that much.

However, you'll be fine... don't let me scare you. You'll still make beer and it will most likely be delicious if all of your other processes are locked down. But there are very simple steps you can take to make truly great beer and one of those happens to be making properly sized starters.

Good luck!