Yeast Issue..HELP!

[alex_wilkosz]

I received a Wyeast #1056 American Ale Yeast It was with a friend of mine and I received it from him Friday. When I received the smack pack it was already inflated as if it had already been smacked. When touched and felt it does not feel as the pack within has been broken yet. Is this possible? If it is and this is the problem; the pack seems too swollen to be able to smack it now without busting it open, what would you suggest I do in this case?

 

[jcarson83]

This isn't the first post I've read like this in the past few weeks on 1056. I think they might have had problem recently. I was helping my buddy brew a few weeks ago and he showed up with a 1056 with the same problem. I told him before hand to go buy some US05 just in case it wasn't good (I was worried about the fact that he had it shipped in hot weather). We brought it to room temperature and smack the piss out of it before we could get it to break. In the end it worked fine though.

You should be fine but a cheap pack of US05 might be worth it if you don't want 5 gallons of wort ready to ferment and no yeast.

 

[alex_wilkosz]

it hadnt ballooned too much that u couldnt smack it without worrying it of exploding? cuz i think that is the problem at the moment with mine...i COULD smack it. but it may explode from pressure

 

[DutchK9]

I had one that I could not get the inside fuel bag to pop open without fear of breaking the outside bag, so I just sanitized the bag and my clippers and poured the yeast into my carboy. I then opened the inside fuel bag and emptied it in the carboy and transferred the wort on it so it would all mix up.

I don't know if this was the right way or not, but it fermented with no problems.

 

[jcarson83]

I wasn't worried too much since we had a backup. We smacked on it for a good 10 minutes before we got it to bust though. The package was almost worn out by that time. I wouldn't worry too much about bursting it. If you don't have a backup then just do what Dutch said. Cut it open and maybe pour it into a sanitized bowl or jar. It should do the same thing as it would in the smack pack.

 

[alex_wilkosz]

ya i thought about pouring it in a ziploc and then breaking it open and just leaving it in there for a little bit during the day and while i brew up my wort