Smack pack didn't fully swell, 15 hours later no activity in fermenter
- Thread starter Beardown
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
do you ave a dried yeast as backup plan, in case it doesn't start fermenting in the next 10-15 hours?
maybe if it starts, you will be in underpitching too...
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mikeal
Well-Known Member
I've had beers go 24 hours before I saw activity. Especially with an older pack of yeast. If you don't have any backup yeast, I'd just wait and try to not worry to much about it.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
Date on the pack...if older than 6 months its basically dead
Some strains don't inflate much - if at all - NB has a comment about this on its website. What strain was it? Did you not make a starter? Always a good idea with liquid yeast. Also, some strains take longer to get going than others - especially without a starter and/or proper aeration/O2. I wouldn't panic, but if you don't see anything within 48 hours of pitching, I'd try to score some dry yeast.
martyjhuebs
Naked Gnome Brew Co
I would definitely keep US-05 on hand to make sure that you always have backups. You might want to look into building a cheap stirplate to make sure you dont have this issue again. My first stirplate was a computer fan, hard drive magnet and rheostat installed in a cardboard box...
BrewSavage
Well-Known Member
Just out of curiosity what was the date?
I wouldn't take action for 48 hrs either.
What are you using for your primary? Bucket? Carboy? Sometimes a bucket or big mouth bubbler doesn't seal tightly and then the airlock doesn't show much activity.
I wouldn't take action for 48 hrs either.
What are you using for your primary? Bucket? Carboy? Sometimes a bucket or big mouth bubbler doesn't seal tightly and then the airlock doesn't show much activity.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
What's the date on the pack?
Schumed
Well-Known Member
that's expired by over a year....nothing but dead yeast...LHBS sell you that recently???...I would take it back and demand a refund...and pitch some us05
kombat
Well-Known Member
Um... what year do you think it is?
EcuPirate07
Beer is a food group
It's shouldn't affect the taste because nothing really happened to begin with, especially if you use the same strain. From my understanding the longer you wait without fermentation the more you risk infection. As long as your sanitation practices were good and you are not opening the top of the carboy every couple hours for some reason you should be fine.
stratslinger
Well-Known Member
If that smack pack was 6 months old, there MAY still be some viable cells left, and you may see something in another day or two once those viable cells have a chance to reach the correct cell count.
Did you oxygenate or at least aerate the wort? That may help.
It's issues just like this that cause a lot of people to make starters with liquid yeast regardless of gravity - even a very small starter will show you whether or not your yeast is still viable before you toss it into your fermenter.
Always always always make a starter with liquid yeast. The starter tells you how the yeast will perform. One smack pack is also not enough, unless nearly 100% healthy, to inoculate 5+ gallons, despite them saying it is. At 5 months it's seriously degraded even if stored well. I would pitch the 05 now. Damn similar strain, won't do any harm IMO.
Schumed
Well-Known Member
Sorry meant to say 6 months old...but my statement is the same..expired yeast....it may still start after a few days but severely underpitched.
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I just had the same thing happen pack didnt swell although it did star on the second day also im a new brewer and have been using the smack packs ive never made a starter and never had any issues with it starting other then this last time but it did start and beer is in secondary now.
I'd just go ahead and re-pitch with another packet. I had the same thing happen with some older yeast. Pitched yeast and waited three days, no activity. Went down to LHBS and grabbed another yeast packet - pitched and fermented, the beer turned out great even with the delayed start. Go for it!
so, you should smack it 5-6 days before inoculatin, and is wise to make a starter for yeast that age. but it's still alive
According to the Mr. Malty yeast calculator at 6 months under refrigerated conditions the yeast pack will only have about 10% viability. At 10% viability you'll have around 10 billion cells available for the batch, you'll need something like 170 billion cells so you're severely under pitching. It wouldn't hurt to pitch another pack of yeast.
guitarguy6
Well-Known Member
You definitely should be making starters if you're using liquid yeast. Especially when they're 3+ months old. Making a starter is easy. For standard gravity beers 1 Liter should be enough. Bring 1 liter of water to a boil, remove from heat and stir in 100 grams (about 3/4 cup) of light DME. Boil it for 10 minutes (optional add some yeast nutrient). Cool it down and transfer it into an erlenmyer flask. If you don't have that you can use something made of glass that's easy to clean and sanitize. I have a glass beer mug that holds approx 2L of liquid that I've used before. Add the yeast and cover the top of your flask or whatever you're using with a sanitized piece of aluminum foil. Let it sit for about 3 days. I pick it up and give it a swirl every time I walk by to keep the yeast in suspension. When it's ready throw it in the fridge to let the yeast settle, decant the wort and then pitch the yeast.
Easier: put 150 grams DME into Erlenmeyer flask. Fill to 1500ml. Put on burner, add a few drops of fermcap. Turn to low once boiling, 10 minutes. Take off heat, drop in stir bar and add yeast nutrient. Cover with foil or star San soaked foam cylinder. Put in ice bath to cool, then add yeast. Put on stir plate for 24 hours, then fridge for 24 hours. Remove from fridge at start of brew boil to come up to temp. Discard flask wort leaving small amount and yeast at bottom. Swirl hard to suspend yeast. Extract stir bar with magnet. Pitch yeast into wort filled fermenter.
bransona
Well-Known Member
It's unlikely but not unheard of. I'd recommend what the rest have. Any way you can get to the lhbs for some 05?
Read up on starters. Pitching a new smack pack is still not enough yeast. If it is more fresh than the first one it will probably ferment the beer but not in an ideal way.
If there was any viable yeast in the first batch it will probably still ferment the beer. At ~10% viability I wouldn't be surprised if it took 5 days or longer to show signs. And then a really slow ferment and a long time to finish.
If the OP hasn't re-pitched by now, not sure what off flavors/bugs he'll get.
