Liquid Yeast + Hot Shipping Conditions =

[FermentingFreak]

Yeast Health Uncertainty...leaving a novice brewer nervous with questions.

I gambled (stupidly) and ordered the NB 115th Dream Hopbursted IPA Extract Kit with Wyeast American Ale 1056 online. It just happened to ship during a really hot week and was delivered in the early morning when I was at work (when typically my deliveries usually occur in the evenings when I am home) on the hottest day of the year! When I got home and unpacked the box, the smack pack was swollen although not bursting at the seams. I put it into the fridge, it reduced back to near normal size, and its been sitting cold for over two weeks.

To be on the safe side, I purchased a new smack pack when I found myself near a LHBS.

This is a higher ABV (9.2%) brew, I want to ensure I pitch enough yeast to work through this, and I hate to waste anything so my question is: Can this previously warmed yeast be salvaged, say maybe in a starter, to be pitched with the good pack? Or should I just suck this up, chock the $7 dollars loss up as a lesson learned, and make a starter with the good pack? Now that I think about it...is one AA 1056 smack pack going to be enough?

Any thoughts and advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[bullinachinashop]

For a beer that big, 1 smackpack with a starter is even to small. You can use the pitching rate calculator on the mrmalty.com site to figure out your cell count needs.
The hot smackpack could be used, but I wouldn't count on it. You could heat it further to +110° or add it to your starter wort when your boiling it and it'll be great nutrient for the healthy pack.
Bull

 

[NervousDad]

I received two packs of 1056 this year both were fully expanded to the point that I could barely pop the inner packet. I had to pinch it to get it to pop. Both had vigorous fermentation after creating a starter. For that beer you'll need to step up a starter for sure. I would count on your smack pack only having around 60% or less viability though to be on the safe side.

 

[TrainSafe]

Yep. The yeast is probably still viable. Do a starter to be sure. In fact, make a starter for the second pack too, and pitch them both for a beer this big.

 

[duboman]

The yeast is fine! Go to http://www.yeastcalc.com, plug in the numbers and step up your starter for proper pitching rate. WY1056 is some pretty resilient stuff and you should have no problems getting it starting and making wonderful beer!

 

[TopherM]

Yeast are perfectly viable up to about 120F, and don't start to die until 140F. Your yeast likely didn't get anywhere near those temps, and even though the pack expanded the yeast were probably just fine. They are very resiliant.