First Brew Day, First All Grain

[Newton]

Did my first brew day ever today, and I skipped extract and did all grain. My jerry-rigged mash/lauter tun and wort chiller worked great. I did the nut brown ale recipe from Palmer's book, although I added a third hop addition and messed with the quantity of pale malt abit. The target O.G. was 1.049 and I hit 1.054! Maybe that extra hop addition will pay off; the wort tastes awesome--ended up with 5 gallons right on the nutts.

Anyways the only thing I'm concerned about it the yeast. I bought one of those London Ale smack packs. I smacked it a few times and let it sit for an hour and a half and nothing happened. So I figured that I missed the pack and decided to do a straight pitch and put the pack back in the fridge for the next hour. When I pitched the yeast I discovered that the pack had indeed broke. So does that mean that the yeast is dead or what? I have my fermenter at 68 degrees, so I figure if it doesn't start bubbling by tomorrow, I'll get some more yeast. Any tips? Thanks,

Ben

 

[DavidSteel]

Hm, waited for an hour an a half? They need to be in a warm area and I've had a london take about 3-4 hours before it started puffing up in the past. You should be good, you'll just have to wait and see.

 

[pkeeler]

What was the expiration date on the smack pack?

 

[Newton]

I'm not really sure what the expiration date was. I called up the brew shop and they said to wait 2 days for bubbles and talk to them after that. So hopefully it starts going...

 

[manticle]

Wyeast smack packs supposedly contain enough cells to directly inoculate a 1040 batch. The smacking breaks a vessel inside that contains nutrients - swelling indicates the yeast is alive. However it's generally been recommended to me that you need to smack and leave for one half a day per month of manufacture/packaging. This date is printed on the front.

If you are making a strong beer, you should either use more packs or make a starter.

If you put the yeast back in the fridge and it was viable then, it will be viable now - just sleepy at those cold temps. Next time you have a brew you want to use this yeast in, pull it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temp. Then make a starter. If the starter starts to ferment, you know it's viable.

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

Well done on the first brew! It'll turn out fine...

Yeast - I always let my smack packs go a full day after I bust them open to check viability. I typically go 2 days but try not to go any more than 3 days. All at room temp down to about 65 - as close to where my ferment temp will be. You'll likely just get a sluggish start but should turn out fine...

 

[Newton]

It's bubbling away right now. Thanks for the tips everyone!