Wyeast Liquid Yeast

[rupal]

Hello, Today i did my first brew using a Wyeast Liquid yeast. But i did not read the instructions properly, I popped the nutrient packed & pitched it after about 20 min (the packet was not puffed up). But i realized afterwards that i was supposed to wait several hours depending on the age of the packet. What i want to know is if the yeast will still do its job or should i buy another one ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mika]

OG of beer ?
As long as it's not a RIS that you're trying to ferment, the yeast will still take off. The nutrient is there to rouse the yeast and give it any proteins and such that's it lost during it's semi-hibernation, but the yeast is still alive and kicking. If the pack was reasonably fresh, even better.

 

[warrenlw63]

Rupal

Depends on how old the package is. If its relatively fresh you shouldn't have too many problems. If its older than say 3 months be patient and sit tight as it may take a couple of days to fire.

Warren -

 

[Cortez The Killer]

Smacked my first pack a 2112 Cal Lager on Tuesday night - manufacture date Jan 07

Looks to have started doing something this morning - it was a tad bit fatter

/// and bigfridge apparently smacked 5 and 9 year old ones respectively that took off

Cheers

 

[reVoxAHB]

What i want to know is if the yeast will still do its job or should i buy another one ?

It really depends on your location. If you're in Australia and need to sell a kidney to buy a single smack pack, you'll want to rethink that course of action, imo.

If you can pick up another for under $5, I might recommend you proceed with that.

In all seriousness and as others have stated, depending on viability date, you should be fine. Assuming the pack is less than 6 months old and has been stored properly, you should be fine, generally speaking.

Effectively, the smack pack joins a small amount of neutral wort/nutrient and the strain itself. It's a bit like a mini-starter. Pitching the non-expanded pack just means it all goes into the fermenter... the yeast will make it's way to what it needs anyway. You'll likely just increase your lag time, but so many variables I wouldn't sweat it anyway.

It's all good.

reVox

 

[devo]

I rarely find myself in this situation because I always make a starter first rather than pitch directly from the smack pack.

 

[rupal]

Thanks all for the advice, I just checked the pack & the date on it is 18th Apr 08, although it has been about 5 hours now & it looks to me that the yeast is not doing anything yet. By the way what is the maximum wart temperature that someone could pitch the yeast into without killing it ???

 

[Stuster]

Thanks all for the advice, I just checked the pack & the date on it is 18th Apr 08, although it has been about 5 hours now & it looks to me that the yeast is not doing anything yet. By the way what is the maximum wart temperature that someone could pitch the yeast into without killing it ???

Step away from the fermenter.

Five hours is not long at all. If you didn't smack the pack, there's no chance anything would have happened after only that long. In fact, there probably wouldn't be much happening even if you had smacked it earlier. So don't worry. Leave it till tomorrow afternoon and then have a check.

Wort of 35 or 40Cwill probably not help your yeast live. If you pitched it warm but not as warm as that, the start will be faster, buuuuuuuut you'll get flavours in there you don't want, too many esters, and probably a fair whack of fusel alcohols which help give you a nice headache. The best thing if you can manage it is to pitch at or a bit below the temperature you want to ferment at.

 

[peas_and_corn]

RDWHAHB Give it about a day and then have a look (if you can leave it alone for that long ). It should be fine

 

[BoilerBoy]

Thanks all for the advice, I just checked the pack & the date on it is 18th Apr 08, although it has been about 5 hours now & it looks to me that the yeast is not doing anything yet. By the way what is the maximum wart temperature that someone could pitch the yeast into without killing it ???

Rupal,
One thing I learn't early and I think it was Thomas when he was at Grumpy's, told me "always pitch an active starter!"

I generally get a liquid yeast started going 5-7 days before brew day and refrigerate the night before
and then tip out most of the yeast starter wort on brew day then add 1L of the brew wort and wait 4-6 hours until its up and firing then pitch.

Whatever the yeast, knowing its active prior to pitching takes alot of the guess work out.

Cheers,
BB

 

[rupal]

I checked this morning & it looks as if the yeast is working now. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Again thanks all for the friendly advice. Rupa