Smack pack incompletely smacked

[brewpood]

I did my first partial mash tonight, and that part (the partial mashing) went very well. Pitching the yeast was another story. My Wyeast 1214 pack didn't seem to be inflating as much as the smackpacks I had used for my first and second batch, but I thought, well, maybe it's just because it's a different yeast.

I pitched the yeast, and two things happened that gave me pause/made me pull my hair out a little: First, the yeast and nutrient pack fell into the wort. I fished them out with a sanitized spoon, and found that the nutrient pack hadn't actually burst. I rinsed both, put them in some Starsan, cut open the nutrient pack, and poured it into the wort. It felt silly because there was already plenty for the yeast to eat in the wort.

Wait and see, or should I just add more yeast as soon as I can get some prepped? Thanks!

 

[hopmonster2189]

I've done the same thing minus dropping the yeast pack and the beer turned out great it was just a moderate gravity ale though

 

[brewpood]

Thanks! Did you have to re-pitch your yeast? Mine has an OG of 1.062.

Update: about 8 hours later, and no airlock activity, but I pulled my blow-off hose out of the jar of sanitizer, and it let out a belch. Fingers crossed!

 

[unionrdr]

I had nearly the same thing with a WY3056 Bavarian wheat blend activator pack. It had two nutrient packs in it,& only one broke. It looked to swell up to about 2" thick though. So I cut the 2nd & dumped it in. Waste not,want not. 2 hours & 8 minutes later,it pegged the airlock center piece against the cap Sunday night. Still bubbling like a percolator.
You don't have to re-pitch your yeast just because the nutrient pack didn't open. That just proofs the yeast (IE,waking it up). So you may have a little more lag time then I did.
Also,getting a belch out of the blow off when pulling it out,you likely had a lil liquid starting up the blow off tube. It effectively pluggs it,ime. You have to let the liquid out of the tube to get the gas blowing off.

 

[brewpood]

Ah! I didn't realize that about the blow-off tube, and that's encouraging that your WY3056 worked. I hope that things will be bubbling away in the next few days.

 

[unionrdr]

It should,it'll likely just take the usual amount of lag time as with some small dry yeast packets. While you're waiting for the yeasts' reproductive phase to go into visible fermentation,the FV can cause some suck back in the blow off tube. If the water in the tube stays below the surface of the liquid in the jug,then you may not notice it. The wild part of it to me is,I had to run to the gas station while the wort was in the ice bath. I get back,most of the packed in ice melted,& water leaking down the sink drain. Damn,why didn't you guys keep an eye on this thing I wondered?
Nevermind,it was down to 61F! So I had about a gallon & a half of room temp spring water with the 2.5G in the fridge. Still turned out to be 60.8F (16C) on the Cooper's micro brew FV's temp strip. It was not quite 18C by the time it pegged the airlock center piece 2 hours & 8 minutes later. Those liquid yeasts can be a beast.

 

[brewpood]

Good news! As I reported in another thread, it started bubbling away this a.m. That's about 32 hours after pitching, so pretty normal. Thank you, Wyeast 1214!

 

[brewpood]

Hi again,

It's been only two days and the bubbling has ceased. Do I wait or do something else? Pitch again? Take a gravity reading? I'm leery of opening the bucket.

Thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

That only means that initial fermentation has finished. It'll now slowly,uneventfully creep down to FG. After that,give it 3-7 days to clean up & settle out clear or slightly misty. Then bottle.

 

[brewpood]

Cool! Thanks! That puts my mind at ease.