Yeast Pack Not Swelling!!

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bobby1212

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I am in the middle of brewing a batch of Oatmeal Stout and my British Ale II yeast pack is not swelling. The little packet inside broke and it has been well over hours and nothing yet.
How is this going to affect me? Will it still work or do I need another packet? I cannot get one until Monday so what else could I use?

Thanks,
Bobby1212
 
What is the date on the package?

And how many hours has it been? Sometimes you have to wait overnight to see any swelling, if the package was produced a couple of months ago...

Since you are in the middle of brewing, you can't hurt anything by pitching the yeast as is. If you aren't seeing any fermentation by Monday, perhaps you could pick up a package of dry yeast and throw it in there...

From here on out, think about making a starter. Then you'll know plenty of time in advance as to whether your smack pack is rockin or not...
 
How warm is it where you have the packet? 3 hours really isn't all that long especially if you didn't warm the pack up when you smacked it
 
I had the same propblem on the last smack pack I used. It turns out that I hadn't broken the inner pack, although I was sure I had, and couldn't feel it anymore.

Try laying it on the counter, and feeling for the inner pack, just in case. Or just beat the heck out of it, beacuse it won't hurt the yeast any.
 
It may be too late, but I wait for my yeast to show signs of swelling before I use it. I actually get my yeast (the big Wyeast pack (I think it is called Activator)) from my LHBS about 2 weeks before I want to brew. That way, I know that I will get fresh yeast in the big Wyeast pack and it only costs $1 more. Upon arrival, I smack it and divide it about equally into 2 starters and use that for 2 different 5 gallon batches.
 
Well I pitched it so we will see what happens. The inner pouch was broken. I have never had one take so long. All the others that I have used swelled within 2 hours.
 
I came across this thread searching for information on long lag times...

My brew last Sunday, (all grain, nut brown ale, wyeast london ale), similar to previous post I thought I smacked the pack the night before. But... I didn't... so, as I was about to brew I noticed a lack of swelling. I figured it wouldn't be a problem. The pack was at room temp. so I just made sure to smack it and went about brewing. I assumed I'd see some swelling by the time I finished the sparge... Wrong!!! Oh.. oh.

Well, there is no LHBS, so my choices were limited. I went ahead and pitched the yeast when the time came and hoped for the best. BTW... everything about this brew session went great, other than the yeast...

So, I didn't see much fermentation for 3 days. I've seen slow starts before, but never 3 days, so I was nervous (still am). Weighing my options, FEDEX more yeast ($50), wait (??)... I decided to wait, and search for a nearby brewery... maybe I could beg yeast.

Finally, I realized that there was a pretty decent package store, and they probably would have some bottle conditioned beer... maybe I could pitch yeast from one of those. (I wanted to try the Left Hand Smoke Jumper Porter anyway).

That was Friday... but when I arrived home... ferme
ntation had started... I can only hope that it's the Wyeast not some random wild yeast... 5 day lag. I'm cautiously optimistic...

So, back to the original post. If I had the LHBS option, I would have purchased another smack pack and re-pitched after 2 days... If you are really concerned, you could bring the wort back to a boil, then cool and repitch. This would eliminate any wild yeasts from your wort.

I've learned my lesson... I'm making starters from now on.
 
This is exactly why you make a starter 1-2 days in advance. You'll know beforehand if the yeast is dead. It also wakes them up and increases the population to a more optimal pitching rate.

sure those smack packs and vials say "pitchable", but they are not at the ideal pitch rate.
 
I thank this forum for stopping me from pitching any liquid yeast without a starter. I did my first big batch 14 gal boil on Tuesday. I smacked 2 yeast Kolsch packs .. No inflation.

I think this is also due to the strain of yeast but I took no chances. I made a 3X starter with a final volume of 1.5 gallons. this took 5 days just for the starter ! Then I crash cooled the starter and poured off most of the liquid. My fermentation started in 4 hours tops with this starter. Without this it would have taken 6 days of lag time!!
 
I wanted to make Ed's Kolsch on Sunday. I smacked the pack 7:00 pm saturday no swelling of the pack but I piched it into my starter at 11:00 pm. No activity by Sunday afternoon so I put off the brew.

By the way the yeast has a manufacture date of July.

Some bubbles this morning. That and this thread has made me think there are some live yeasties in there. Trouble is I won't have time to brew until Saturday. Can I save the starter until then. Should I let the starter really get going and then refridgerate or should I refridgerate now and pull it out earlier or should I just leave it at room temp for the next 5 days?

Thanks

Rudeboy
 
I didn't see a reply to the secondary question about just letting the wort sit a week or two without yeast. Would it do any harm to just cool the wort and seal it with an airlock? You could let it sit a week or two without a problem, I think, pick up some new yeast, make a starter and pitch at your leisure. You'd probably want to give everything a good stir before pitching to get some air back in the wort.
 
I had an ESB yeast smack pack that took about 6 days to fully expand. I had gone and gotten a white labs replacement and pitched that. Didn't use the other.
 
Well I pitched it and the next day it was bubbling away. The packet never did swell so not sure what's up with that. I have had packets that swelled that took longer than that to start bubbling.

Thanks for all the replies.
 
Rudeboy said:
I wanted to make Ed's Kolsch on Sunday. I smacked the pack 7:00 pm saturday no swelling of the pack but I piched it into my starter at 11:00 pm. No activity by Sunday afternoon so I put off the brew.

By the way the yeast has a manufacture date of July.

Some bubbles this morning. That and this thread has made me think there are some live yeasties in there. Trouble is I won't have time to brew until Saturday. Can I save the starter until then. Should I let the starter really get going and then refridgerate or should I refridgerate now and pull it out earlier or should I just leave it at room temp for the next 5 days?

Thanks

Rudeboy


Keep building up the starter. This is a nice but screwey yeast. I almost dumped mine out but I am glad I didnt. My actual batch fermentation started almost immediatly and was over in 48 hours.
 
Had the same thing happen to me yesterday, with this same yeast, in a Kolsch. Popped it. 4 hours later (approx. 10 pm), it inflated approx 1/2 inch. I let it sit overnight, and it didn't get much more inflated.

Based on the reading here about how this yeast is a bit slow to get going (and the fact that it was about 4 degrees F outside last night and I couldn't monitor the temp while asleep so it was perhaps too cool around the little packet), I went ahead and pitched it this morning. Yeast mfg date: Nov 15. OG: 1.047 Pitched 1/30/08 at 8:00 AM.


Anyone who has experience with Wyeast 2565 Kolsch think I have anything to worry about? Obviously, I've had a homebrew (last night), so I'm not too worried. If you haven't had a homebrew yet, do you think I should worry?
 
It will be fine, I set mine on top of the fridge, its always warm up there (75º to 85º) and it really helps swell them fast and full.
It's like Viagara for smack packs :D
 
I always smack them the day before and if nothing I do not brew..I make a starter in most as well. This is the only way to know if you have viable active yeast. I always keep some nice dry yeast on hand as well for emergencys but for a kolsch or hefe or wit the dry yeast will suck. I starter is easy simple..insures good yeast and gives you a better pitching rate and shorter lag time.

Jay
 
Sorry for bumping this thread, but it seemed like it'd be better to revive it than to start a new topic.

I hadn't brewed since the summer, so I was used to needing to put my primary in a water bath to keep the temperature low and stable. After a day or two and still no airlock activity I realized that the temperature in the water was like 45-55*, so I took it out. Another day with no activity and it dawned on me that it's still early spring in friggin Buffalo, so the ambient temp was probably maxing out in the high 50s/low 60s. I took it upstairs last night (so about four full days with no fermentation, as far as I can tell) where the heat is in the mid to high 60s, and gave it a gentle swirl (to avoid oxidation). This morning the airlock was bubbling once every 10 seconds or so, so it appears I un-stuck myself.

So, firstly, thanks to everyone who's helped with this in the past, because it stopped me from having to start a new topic for it. Of course, I'm making a new post now so I suppose I'm still a jerk.

My question, though, is will this have any adverse effects on my beer? I'm not asking 'did I kill it,' and I'll be rdwhahb-ing, but I saw some references to diacetyl issues and some comments that I think were essentially 'it'll be fine.' The lid was firmly on and I only removed the airlock to move it/shake it so I'm not really worried about infection, but there are still a lot of magical aspects to the brewing process for me so as far as I know any number of things could be thrown out of whack.
 
Sigafoos said:
Sorry for bumping this thread, but it seemed like it'd be better to revive it than to start a new topic.

I hadn't brewed since the summer, so I was used to needing to put my primary in a water bath to keep the temperature low and stable. After a day or two and still no airlock activity I realized that the temperature in the water was like 45-55*, so I took it out. Another day with no activity and it dawned on me that it's still early spring in friggin Buffalo, so the ambient temp was probably maxing out in the high 50s/low 60s. I took it upstairs last night (so about four full days with no fermentation, as far as I can tell) where the heat is in the mid to high 60s, and gave it a gentle swirl (to avoid oxidation). This morning the airlock was bubbling once every 10 seconds or so, so it appears I un-stuck myself.

So, firstly, thanks to everyone who's helped with this in the past, because it stopped me from having to start a new topic for it. Of course, I'm making a new post now so I suppose I'm still a jerk.

My question, though, is will this have any adverse effects on my beer? I'm not asking 'did I kill it,' and I'll be rdwhahb-ing, but I saw some references to diacetyl issues and some comments that I think were essentially 'it'll be fine.' The lid was firmly on and I only removed the airlock to move it/shake it so I'm not really worried about infection, but there are still a lot of magical aspects to the brewing process for me so as far as I know any number of things could be thrown out of whack.

It should be fine. While some ale yeast can be used to lager, most of them are totally dormant at that low of a temp. And, you essentially had your wort in a refrigerator at those temps, so as long as you were vigil about your sanitation processes, you should have very minimal bacteria/wild yeast growth, and your yeast should greatly out number them.
 
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