Wyeast Activation Issues

[Screwtop]

It will swell, have 6L (yes 6L) of your wort ready. Pitch to it and when active -:lots of bubbles running up the inside of the starter vessel/vessels (2 x 3L woollies homebrand juice bottles, pitch to a large sanitised pot then split in two of these containers, they are ideal to shake and unscrew the lid a little to let off pressure) pitch it to your wort, then begin to drop temp to 12°C
Best you can do when you don't have enough yeast!

Screwy

 

[Nick JD]

It will take much longer than 4 hours for a 2 month old lager yeast to swell.

Give it 12 hours. And then make a starter - because a 2 month old pack of liquid lager yeast is only enough to ferment about 5 liters of wort.

Welcome to the ****** reality of liquid yeasts. You're best off splitting the pack 4 or 5 ways and resigning yourself to making starters.

Or buy dried yeast.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I have pitched it.... should I add a pack of dried yeast as well to get the job done or is my brew day farked....

 

[pk.sax]

Well, if you've ignored the make a starter comments up there, yes, add a sachet of dry yeast too. They will both work, just be a mix up of characters or one will dominate the other. Either way, it will ferment out.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I have a pack of W-34/70 I will pitch too.

 

[pk.sax]

I'm not a lager brewer but I've had had to pitch a dry yeast on a wheat when I thought the liquid yeast sample I had saved from the previous batch was dead. Later, my control vial of that yeast showed activity so the beer prolly got a 1.5 times pitch. Flavour was somewhat muted but the original yeast did show through too.

Relax, it'd be a beer to drink. Have one or a few and let it do its thing. There is not much wrong you can do.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Cheers, I don' normally brew lagers either and this is why!

 

[Tony]

Last week i smacked a pack of Danish lager.

It has been well looked after at 3 deg c and was about 6 months old.

It sat and did nothing for 2 days, then slowly swelled fully over another 3 days.

I saved a couple of vials and put the other half of the pack in a starter.

2 liters done in 3 days at low 20's now has a nice 5mm thick layer of yeast.