Wyeast Nutrient Swell

[P!N20]

Hi. So I bought a smack pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale yesterday, with the intention of making a starter in the evening, so while I didn't keep it cold, I didn't activate it, either. When I pulled it out to activate it a few hours later, I noticed the pack had already swelled a bit, and I just thought I may have broken the nutrient pouch during transport. Upon further inspection, the nutrient pouch felt hard like a lump of something, and I couldn't break it. I made my starter as normal and poured in the yeast. Then I pulled the nutrient pouch out to investigate and it had swollen up like a balloon! I tried to break it in my hands, but no dice. It was only when I placed it in the sink and punched it several times did it break...and sent nutrient flying everywhere! I've never had a nutrient pouch swell before, what was going on there?

 

[MHB]

For some reason 1056 often comes a bit puffy (sometimes inflated like a balloon), probably just the yeast not having fully attenuated the wort it was made in and chewing on a bit of the residual sugars.
I wouldn't worry about it, there is no need to have a smack pack swell, you still have the same amount of yeast.
The swelling means the yeast will hit the ground running, but if you are adding it to a starter no big, in fact the other main competitor doesn't bother with the whole smack pack thing.
Mark

 

[P!N20]

Cheers Mark, but it wasn't the yeast that had swelled, it was the nutrient pouch. I'm not particularly worried about it, I've just never seen that happen before. Here's a shitty picture of it:

 

[Lionman]

Must be yeast or some other micro organism in the nutrient pouch.
When it was cold the organisms were dormant.
Warming it up has allowed them become active and they have begun to produce gas.

Seems like a logical explanation, possibly a good thing you avoiding using it.

Did you starter go ok?

 

[P!N20]

^ Yeah, there was a nice foamy head on it this morning, so all good.

I might flick Wyeast an e-mail and see what they've got to say.

 

[Bribie G]

I rarely use Whitelabs, but since the release of Melbourne Ale and San Diego Super Yeast and the availability from Hoppy Days in recent times, I've been getting a few in.

I have a stir plate so give them 24 hours on some LDME and a bit of nutrient and they seem to be as fast as smack packs - maybe even a bit quicker. The original concept I expect was to have a bit of (perhaps) a gimmick to distinguish between the Wyeast Propagator (red pack) - since discontinued that you had to put in a starter, and the Activator which was, and still is the smack pack.

 

[manticle]

OT but get onto wL london ale in one of your bitters, bribie.

 

[stewy]

I concur with the WL London Ale for bitters.

 

[P!N20]

For anyone interested I did receive a reply from Wyeast, who stopped short of explaining why my nutrient pack swelled up. They did say I could get a replacement from the retail outlet. So not that helpful, but I guess it was good to get a response.