I am done with "Smack Pacs"

I smacked a Wyeast 1214 Propagator around 10pm lastnight. So this morning I went to make my starter and I noticed it did not swell much. So I continued with the starter and when I opened the smack pac only 1 of the little bags inside was broke open. I do not know if it was the yeast or the nutrient side that had opened. Well I finished the starter anyways and we will see what happens. I am off to the LHBS and get some White Labs.

Have yet to have that happen, but I smack mine pretty hard then feel to make sure the "bulge" is no longer there. White Labs is quality as well.

The contents of the bags inside is the nutrient. Smacking it last night at 10 and then expecting to make a starter this morning is kind of rushing it, no? Even if both puches had broken, I would still not expect the yeast to be ready to step up. I usually give it 2-3 days head start, then do my starter.

Why not give it a chance to do it's job?

Yeah I usually try to start the smack pack 2 days minimum before pitching it. Also the first few times I used a smack pack I didnt shake very hard, now I shake the s*@t out of it and it seems to make a difference as far as propogation.

the last smack pack I used I couldnt get one of the bags to break. the pack was somewhat swollen allready and I felt like I was going to bust the whole thing open.

I said screw it, used dry yeast instead. I opened the smack pack, and the nutrient pack was deformed, Im guessing from the heat during shipment. ive pretty much come to the conclusion that I really do prefer dry yeast. Lag time is extremely short, and nottingham, us-56, and s-04 have proven themselves time and time again. so unless Im doing a specialty beer that calls for a certain strain, Im going to stick with dry. plus, i have to get all my yeast shipped, and arizona sun and yeast dont play well together.

Chimone said:

I said screw it, used dry yeast instead.

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The fact that the bag had swelled tight proved that the yeast was ready. This is the way the product is supposed to work.

I've tended to go for the dry yeast for my standard ales. It has been fun to experiment with the different liquid ale strains, though. Hefes, wits, belgians or any lager and I'll go for the White Labs tubes.

Mikey said:

The fact that the bag had swelled tight proved that the yeast was ready. This is the way the product is supposed to work.

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it wasnt swollen tight. it was swollen just enough to where I couldnt get ahold of the pack inside. And no, I couldnt prove the yeast was viable especially since it was shipped in the middle of summer.

Depending ont he brand of smack pack and the freshness I've seen solid growth inside of a couple hours. Heck, I broke a Wyeast Propogation pack (25 billion cells--- intended for a starter) an hour ago and it is already almost fully swollen. I'll probably pitch it in the next hour or 2 and use the results tomorrow.

I can't imagine waiting 3 days for the thing.


And it it was an activator smack pack instead, I'd probably give it an overnight and then pitch directly with no worries. In fact, I've seen them fully expanded in 3 horus and pitched it inside of 6 hours and not seen appreciable lag.

My last batch I forgot I hadn't bought a smack pack and was short on time and pitched a packet of dry Muntons ale yeast. Got a blow off the next morning.


Short form: I like smack packs for their ease of use and rapid, obvious signs of health. Dry muntons serves as a fine back up in my experience.

I'm not a big fan of smack packs either. I've had some take as long as 72 hours to take off after pitching.

I made a ESB on Saturday and after 3 hours of pitching some Muntons dry yeast it looked like this:

I'll stick with Nottingham's dry, or White Lab vials.... never failed me!

Ive only used smack packs so far. And since i tried to open my first one in the car on the way home for my LHBS:cross: , I wasnt able to smack and break the insides. I have since just wrung the entire package between my two hands like it was a wet rag, following that by shacking the hell out of it. These always works for me.

My current batch of English Pale Ale in my fermenter was my first experience with a Wyeast smackpack. I forgot to smack it the night before like I had planned so I smacked it the next day 4 hours prior to pitching. The pack didn't seem like it had swelled at all come pitching time and I realized I hadn't actually broken the nutrient pack. D'oh!! Luckily I happened to have a pack of dry Coopers Ale yeast in the fridge so I pitched that and everything seemed to go well. Not sure how it will affect the taste though.

Unfortunately, the LHBS has gone back to smack-packs, too. I hate'em too.

If you are going to make a starter from them anyway then smacking them and waiting for them to swell is really only necessary if you want to be absolutely certain that the yeast cells are viable. There is really not enough food for any significant increase in cell count within the smack pack itself. The real increase in cell count occurrs during the production of the starter. You could just cut it open without smacking it, or smack it and immediately just pitch it into an already prepared starter wort.

The only thing that you would be loosing is knowing ahead of time that the cells are viable, but you don't know that with a White Lab's vial either. If you have viable cells, you will have a starter in about the time it takes for a smack pack to fully swell.

John

I usually smack my packs (when using them and not making a starter) right before I set up the Mash then put them on top of the fridge where they get to 75-80 ish.. they are usually swollen by the time I'm ready to pitch.. I haven't had any issues or excessive lag using the larger smack packs witholut a starter.

I don't know what brand puts 2 bags inside the outer bag, but I've always used Wyeast, and can count on 2 fingers how many times a bag wasn't fully swollen in less than 12 hours, and 1 of those was like 3 months old. I made a batch tonight, and my Wyeast Activator has 1 bag inside. Why would anyone put 2 packs in, just put 1 ingredient in the main bag, and one in the inner pouch? I always assure the inner pouch is broken by laying the pouch on the counter, and kneading the liquid through my fingers, holding the far end down about 1/3 of the way. If you can't push it all through, the inner bag ain't broken. I never use a starter, and my beer is always going within 8 hours, and ferments out fine.

It was a Wyeast 1214 Propagator that had two small bags in it.

All of them have two bags. It almost looks like one bag folded in half and sealed on 3 ends.

The Activator XL is the only one you should be pitching directly into low-grav worts.

I recently goofed and bought a Propagator Pack for my IPA. This "forced" me to pour my Horny PA's yeast/trub slurry into a starter container then clean the primary. Then I pitched the yeast/trub back into the wort and added the Propagator Pack for good measure...then I stood back and watched the magic show...lag time was about 30min and full krausen w/in 2hrs.