Wyeast Pack not swelling

I am preparing to brew my 5TH batch of home brew today, a pale ale.
Last night I smacked the Wyeast #1028 London Ale and this AM there is no visible sign of swelling. This is third time I have used a Wyeast liquid package and have not seen this before. Every other time the package swelled up as advertised.

Should I replace the yeast before brewing?

Interesting. What is the date on the pack? I'm still a newb but in my dozen or so brews I haven't had a bad smack pack yet. Do you have something to build up a starter in? That would at least proof viability.

Jason

You slapped it, but did the inner pack break?

Yes, the pack broke but still no action. The date on the pack is 19-Dec-2010. Weird, I've used Wyeast packs in three previous brews with no issue.

I did some research and found a similar string on the HBtalk site. It led me to Mrmalty.com which happens to have a program for calculating the pitch rate in starters (http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html). The program contains a calculation for viability of a Wyeast pack based on age. I was surprised to find out that my pack is already considered to be only 46% viable based on the date. The program says I would need a second Wyeast pack to make a starter to properly ferment the 5 gallon batch.

I will return this one and will be using some dry yeast I have on hand. Check out Mr. Malty. Lots of good info...

With the pack being almost three months old, you need to give it TIME to swell. Where is it sitting now? Did you shake it to mix the nutrient in with the yeast?

I believe that Wyeast says to give it an extra day per month of age for the packet. So, three days for three month old yeast...

A starter would be a good idea too... I would plan on brewing in a few days, not today.

Every pack I've used bloated within 24 hours (most in much less than that) except one. It was 6 months old and took two full days. It made fine beer.

Try not to accept old smack packs.

It's possible that your smack pack was frozen at some point. If it never bloats, don't use it.

And don't toss it out either... Take it back to where you got it from (assuming it's from a LHBS)... Or contact the vendor you bought it from. They should provide you with a replacement pack if it never swells. I think they draw the line after about 6 months, but it should still be good yeast.

If the LHBS didn't store it properly, then you're fighting a losing battle.

Personally, I won't by a Wyeast pack that's more than a few weeks old. I'll get the LHBS to order more, fresh, yeast for me before I buy something older than I'm comfortable with. Of course, where I get my yeast they have a high enough turn-over that it's never been an issue.

I have used a smack pack that was more than 6 months old and made good beer with it. I did make a starter though.

I have an old ale that's stalled out that I used a two or three month old Wyeast pack of 1028. Of course, mine started swelling within a few hours.

In truth, it's not completely the yeasts fault. I needed a 2.5 liter starter, but only had a 2 liter vessel available at the time. Good enough, I thought. I hit it with a heavy dose of oxygen, but being a 1.095 beer I wanted to hit it again at 12 hours, but missed my window. Ah well, I thought, I should be fine. Heck, I added yeast nutrient to help it along, I NEVER do that!!!

So, here I am kicking myself!

*Ahem*

From the horse's mouth.

From the Wyeast FAQ website:

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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You don't even really have to smack if you don't want to if you are making a starter, but you definitely don't need to wait for it to inflate. It sound's like you need to be making a decent sized starter, so that's the time you need to factor for, not whether it needs to be smacked or not.

I usually smack the Activator pack to be sure the yeast is alive/viable... If I'm making a starter (most of the time I do anyway) I'm doing that while the pack is swelling. By the time the starter has cooled down enough, the packet has swelled up nicely. If it hadn't, I'd be taking it back to the LHBS for a replacement...

Golddiggie said:

If it hadn't, I'd be taking it back to the LHBS for a replacement...

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Many homebrew stores don't like Wyeast because they can't sell packs that are partially inflated, and constantly get returns of packs that don't inflate quickly.

They are usually fine in either case. Older smack packs simply take longer to inflate because there is less viable yeast in there. It also depends on the yeast strain to some extent. The only way that a liquid yeast won't perform is if it got frozen or excessively heated. That can be easily checked by doing a starter.

Where I typically buy yeast it's fresh enough that if it hasn't swelled within a day, it's probably not going to at all. Typically the people buying the Wyeast there (from what I've seen) have used it before, so they know the drill. Noobs are informed before using it what to expect. They also have a help line (just the phone number for the store) posted online for people to call in with questions. You might be surprised at some of the questions they get asked on that line (from people who have never brewed before)...

Personally, when I'm about to use something for the first time, I get as much info about it as I can before hand. Be that web sites, talking with people that are familiar with it, whatever it takes. Chances are, something new to me is rather old to more than enough people.

As for the OP's pack of yeast... Give it at least a day to see if it swells at all. I would also make sure the nutrient pack was popped and it's mixed in. I know that the first two Wyeast packs I used, I didn't get the nutrient pack to pop. Pitched the yeast and nutrient pack contents into the cooled wort and things ended up just fine. I wouldn't do that again, but that was back during my first two batches of beer ever made...

I slapped the pack on Saturday to brew Sunday. This is day four. Still no visible swelling and I have kept it at ~70 degrees. I did purchase it from a LHBS. I'm new to the game but everything I have read says to make a starter JIC to ensure your yeast is viable. That way you are assured not to be pitching dead yeast into your wort. I will be doing so from this point forward. I also did not think a couple months was "old" for a yeast pack?

I did follow some advice from HBtalk and had a package of English ale dry yeast on hand, which I used to brew yesterday. My airlock is happily clicking away this AM

Davida said:

I slapped the pack on Saturday to brew Sunday. This is day four. Still no visible swelling and I have kept it at ~70 degrees. I did purchase it from a LHBS. I'm new to the game but everything I have read says to make a starter JIC to ensure your yeast is viable. That way you are assured not to be pitching dead yeast into your wort. I will be doing so from this point forward. I also did not think a couple months was "old" for a yeast pack?

I did follow some advice from HBtalk and had a package of English ale dry yeast on hand, which I used to brew yesterday. My airlock is happily clicking away this AM

Click to expand...

I would return / exchange it. Couple of months is not that old.