Why does the yeast from my smack pack look curdled?

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I just pitched a Wyeast smack pack of London ESB 1968 into a 1 gallon starter. when i opened the pack the yeast was separated out from the other liquid and it looked curdled, like bailey's irish cream looks when you pour it into soda (don't ask how i know this). everything was normal procedure; bought it today, date on package is sept 30, smacked it about 3 hours ago, made the starter wort, etc. the pack got very bloated like usual, smelled fine.

anyone ever seen this? i've never used this yeast before, could it be this particular strain?

TIA
 
Certain British strains do get very clumpy. I am not absolutely familiar with that yeast bit I would not worry. Here is a shot of WLP002 after 16 hours on the stirplate.

Yeast_Starter.jpg
 
IrishStout003.jpg


Different yeast strains look different...I've found that highly flocculant yeast strains can look all sorts of clumpy. That pic is WLP007, another very flocculant yeast like 1968
 
London 1968 is our primary yeast for our house brews. When you get a good starter going it looks like cottage cheese in the jug. It is a very flocculant yeast and it clumps up like curds. It also works fast, usually 4 days and your at gravity. We give it quite a bit longer to clean up after itself. I'd say your smack pack is fine, the appearance your seeing is just one of characteristics of the strain.
 
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