How long to wait before I declare Wyeast packet dead

[Grinder12000]

Smacked Wyeast packet a 2:00 Sunday - never ballooned out - pitched 8:00pm Sunday night.

Still no signs of activity in the wort Tuesday morning - 34 hours!

At what point do I stop drinking home brew and start to worry LOL

 

[MN_Jay]

Get ready for the flurry of "you should always make a starter"..... Seriously, this happened to me once and I realized that I only smacked one pouch inside the packet, there are two and both need to be punctured. Otherwise I'd say make a starter with what you have and that will tell you for sure.

 

[Grinder12000]

Make a starter with what I have??

I have nothing - I poured the liquid into the wort.

Smacked - squished all I could until there was nothing more the squish.

There are two packs??

 

[blacklab]

Time to pitch some dry yeast.

 

[bearkluttz]

i had the same problem with a white labs yeast that never took off. LHBS owner told me to re-pitch. worked great and i haven't had any problems so far...

 

[Rezilynt]

Smacked Wyeast packet a 2:00 Sunday - never ballooned out - pitched 8:00pm Sunday night.
Still no signs of activity in the wort Tuesday morning - 34 hours!
At what point do I stop drinking home brew and start to worry LOL

Let it go. Don't start worrying until at least 72 hours has passed. The yeast is still eating oxygen and reproducing right now.

 

[neilb]

I made a thread on here about the exact same thing. Took 3 days before fermentation really got going. Turned out fine though and has all been drunk!

Using dry yeast this time around with a 6 hour lag....much better for my nerves

 

[Grinder12000]

Thanks - I figure even if there is ONE little yeasty it'll get going sooner or later.

My worry is that the lag time will allow bad bugs to take a hold (if there are any).

I've never used anything but Wyeast - is there a better option???

 

[JMayle]

When I fermented my first brew I pitched a perfectly active Wyeast pack that I had smacked 3 days previous, and it still took 2 1/2 days for any signs of fermentation to appear. So, be patient.

 

[Grinder12000]

This is the first time I ever had ANYTHING not normal with Wyeast - thus - I was worried!

 

[Rezilynt]

This is the first time I ever had ANYTHING not normal with Wyeast - thus - I was worried!

Don't feel bad - It's easy to worry. The first time I used a smack pack, I forgot to take it out of the fridge and had to pitch it right after smacking it. I was worried, but, it still worked (it's on the packet that you can do this).

 

[MN_Jay]

Make a starter with what I have??

I have nothing - I poured the liquid into the wort.

Smacked - squished all I could until there was nothing more the squish.

There are two packs??

Sorry I read your post too quickly and didn't realize you pitched it already. And yeah the wyeast smack packs I've had has 2 separate packets that you have to smack and then they mix together. My first time I only punctured one and it obviously didn't swell.

 

[Grinder12000]

All is well!!!!! Stand down team - the man has crawled back into the window and is off the ledge.

He appears to be drinking Home brew!

 

[LayMeister]

Get ready for the flurry of "you should always make a starter"..... Seriously, this happened to me once and I realized that I only smacked one pouch inside the packet, there are two and both need to be punctured. Otherwise I'd say make a starter with what you have and that will tell you for sure.

When did they start putting two packets in the smack pack? I don't see anything about on their web site or in their demo video? I have only ever found one.

Paul

 

[MN_Jay]

Dunno, the last one I had it was this way.

 

[Grinder12000]

I've only seen one packet when I tore it apart. Liquid and a packet!

 

[JMayle]

About a month ago my friend thought he smacked his pack but missed it, then upon opening it found a single pack of nutrient, and I've only seen one as well.

 

[Grinder12000]

MN_Jay - do you live nest to a nuclear power plant with double headed frogs??

 

[MN_Jay]

Frogs only have one head?