Should I pitch a second Wyeast pack?

Quick background...back in December I bought a Northern Brewer Scottish 70 kit with a Wyeast 1728 smack pack. I kept the yeast in the fridge in my garage and in late December, early January the outside temperature dropped to the teens for a couple weeks. I was worried that the temperature in the fridge may have dropped too low and that the yeast may have been damaged so I went out to my LHBS and bought another yeast pack to use. I smacked both; the older one didn't swell so I only pitched the new one. Well now 18 hours later the old one has swelled. I'm not going to make another scotch/scottish ale in the next week so should I pop open my fermenter and pitch the second pack? Otherwise it's going in the trash...

On another note it's been 18 hours and I'm not seeing much activity, though I think it's a bit cold as the temperature stripe on the bucket says it's 60 degrees, so I'm trying to raise the temp a bit. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

Any chance you'll make one in the next month or so? If so you'd be fine to just refrigerate the swollen pack.

For the bucket temp, you could move it near a water heater, get it off direct contact with the floor if that's a problem, wrap it up in some towels for insulation or just move it to a warmer part of the house. The 18 hours is not an unusually long lag time, but the low temperature may well be contributing.

Another though on using the second pack, did you make a starter for the first one or just add it directly? You may want to drop the second one in there after all if no starter was made. What was your starting gravity?

Edit: NB says the gravity should have been 1.040. One pack should be enough, just get it warmer. If you won't use the other pack in the next couple months just go ahead and toss it in.

 

I won't make another scottish/scotch ale; is there another style that could use the same yeast?

I have the bucket in a room with a space heater so I've just turned up the temp on the heater a bit. I didn't do a starter; just pitched the smack pack straight in. Starting gravity was 1.044.

 

Here's some info from Wyeast. Looks like you have a fair number of options. Although you could try pretty much anything and still end up with beer. Also seems like your 60 degrees is within its normal temperature range, so you may just be experiencing normal lag time.