Mixing yeast strains?

[mrbobble]

Hi Folks,
Just thought I'd check with everyone....
I had a 10 gallon Porter batch split into two glass carboys. I pitched one pack each of Wyeast British Ale yeast smack packs into the carboys. The packs never ballooned after 6 hours at a nice room temperature but due to the lateness of night I pitched anyways. No fermentation signs the next morning evening or the day after. I pitched again w/ the same yeast (w/ the same flat smack packs interestingly enough) w/ the same results over the same amount of time. Fermenters were sitting at about 68 the whole time. I then pitched in a Wyeast American Ale starter I had put aside for a pale ale and fermentation kicked off within a few hours afterwards and proceeded as I would normally expect. Lots of bubbling (only in one fermenter) but churning in the wort, krausen and the whole works in both.
Does anyone know if I need to worry about any off flavors etc from the extra possibly dead yeast in the fermenters? Autolysis maybe? Thoughts? Beuler?
I'm thinking it has the possibility of tasting very interesting.

 

[joeirvine]

Should of just waited. I had a Hefe I pitched last Wednesday and was worried it might have been to hot. I post the question about possibly turning it into a citrus wheat with regular Muntons Gold because the WL 300 hefe didn't take off by Friday evening yet. Someone very wisely said something along the lines of don't worry, today's yeasts just don't not work. Went away for Memorial weekend and sure enough by Sunday the thing was fermenting like a beast.

 

[mrbobble]

Was the smack pack inflated when you pitched?
Have you heard of any negative issues when mixing yeast strains? Aside from the mixed flavor profile that is?

 

[joeirvine]

Was the smack pack inflated when you pitched?
Have you heard of any negative issues when mixing yeast strains? Aside from the mixed flavor profile that is?

Sorry I took so long. Honestly I'm not even really sure what a smack pack is, so I can't say if it was inflated or not. I used a vial of wl 300 without a started.

I haven't heard of any negative impacts aside from mixed flavors. It seems semi popular to intentially mix. From what I gathered it seems like most is just pitching on to a yeast cake while the starting is...uh.. starting, then pitching the started.

How did everything turn out though?

 

[Polaris96]

I plan using an intentional doublepitch when I brew barleywine, this year. I'm going to start on regular safale s-04 and a few days after primary has halted, I'll repitch with a more alcohol tolerant strain (haven't decided which, yet)

I'm counting on the s-04 to make it "britishy". I haven't read anything about double pitching, except here. I figure if the yeast is deactivated, it can't react with an active strain that has just been pitched.

this is grossly simplifying things, but I can't see any brick walls for double pitching.

Barleywines take "LONG" to mature, so I'll let you know how it turned out next year sometime.