dstark
Member
I bought a sierra nevada bigfoot clone a few weeks ago that came with the wyeast activator. My question is, is my yeast dead. The package sat at the post office for almost two weeks unrefrigerated, would this kill them?
dont forget - it will probably take about 2 hrs before you see the bag start to expand.
Lets say on brew day that I smack it and nothing happens, would a packet or two of nottingham do the trick or do I need something special?
This raises an interesting tangential question - how do you determine what dry yeast substitutions are most appropriate?I'm guessing that's a 1056 smack pack. If that's the case, and it does fail to activate, Safale US-05 would be a better dry yeast substitution. It's the same strain.
This raises an interesting tangential question - how do you determine what dry yeast substitutions are most appropriate?
I'm definitely not experienced enough yet to be able to know how particular yeasts will impact a brew. To be able to look at a Wyeast pack or White Labs tube and say "if this doesn't activate in my starter, I'll need XX-YY dry yeast as a backup" seems completely beyond me.
Is there a handy yeast database resource?
Smack it. If it swells that will answer your question. Keep some dry yeast on hand just in case.
BTW, if it does swell up like it's supposed to, make a starter with it. That's a pretty big brew.
what makes a beer a "big brew"?
Your yeasts are very unlikely to be totally dead after two weeks at room temp, but they might be significantly weakened. If I were you, I'd take the thing out three days before brewing and smack it, then make a starter a few hours later. Starters are always a good idea for liquid yeasts, even for Wyeast.
To continue with my vocabulary lesson: What does "smack" mean; Ive heard it a lot...thanks
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