flat smak pack

[kevin]

i was planning on brewing this weekend a esb from northern brewers. in the kit is a 1968 london smak pack with a date of sept 03. i think i bought this in aug sept but never got around to brewing. so anyway i smaked it about 16 hours ago and nothing is happening, should i let it sit some more or make a starter pitch it in and see what happens? or just buy another pack?

[sallad]

wait another day, it'll probably swell up. if it swells or not, i'd still recommend a starter. that way you're sure to get a good, quick start on your ferment!

[noby]

so is it reccommended to make a starter, even with the smak packs?
I thought that's what the smak pack was. (then again I've only used it once)

[Jughead]

Yup, the smack pack is a mini-starter. I'm sure you could pitch it directly without any problems in most cases. However, for big beers a starter is still recommended. If the smack pack is stale and slow to swell, I'd still do a starter to build up the population.

Actually, I always do a starter unless the smack pack bloats quickly and I'm in a real hurry to get a batch going.

To make things easy, I make my starters from DME and can enough for about a dozen batches at a time.

[kevin]

here is the what ended up happening, I smak on tuesday and by time we left on thursday nothing yet happening. Saturday when we returned from the inlaws, stll flat. So I brewed a starter and pitch by sunday I had a big yeast cake on the bottom but I never saw any activity. Brew my esb on sunday and pitched the starter nothing happening. So I contacted wyeast and here is the results. I got the kit Aug-Sep planned to brew, but didn't get to it right away the yeast sat in my basement between 60-68F and I should of place it in the refrig. So last night I had some dry yeast and I rehydrated it an pitch, this morning it was bubbling along. So lesson learn place your yeast in the frig if you are not planning on brewing soon.

[BeerBelly]

I always put my liquid yeast in the refrigerator until about 24 hours before I plan to brew. But never the freezer.

What king of DME or LME is recommended for making a starter? And how much? I want to begin using starters and also saving of some yeast, to defer the cost of the liquid yeast.

[kevin]

I boil 2 cups water and 1/2 cup of dme in a saucepan, cool to around 75F pour into a sanitize growler cover with sarah wrap then shake the hell out of it, remove sarah wrap pitch yeast then affix airlock and put it up on top of the frig.

[paul84043]

The only smack packs I have used (Wyeast) had swelled the package to near bursting in the time it took my to cook the wort.
If it took a day or more, I would use different yeast.

I brewed a 6 malt ale from AHS yesterday. I forgot to take out the White Labs tube the day before and ended up only taking it out as I started brewing. It had only about 2 to 3 hours to activate, but this morning I have a very large amount of kreusen, I'm even considering putting on the blowoff tube.

Liquid yeasts should take off and work from square one, especially considering what you pay for them...

[kevin]

I had some dry yeast Muntons and Ale and I pitched that the second day since the Wyeast wasn't going to work. I had rack it today to seconday SG 1.048 and gravity today was 1.016. And it tasted really good. Next time I'll be putting yeast right in the frig if I don't use it right away.

[bierboy]

The other thing to remember is that the smack packs will take 1 day per month from the date on the pack. In other words, a package dated Sept and used in Nov will take about 3 days to proof.

[frspinale]

I had something like this happen to me just 2 weeks ago. Also a london ale smak pac. I waited 48 hours and the pac just wouldnt swell up. I pitched anyway without making a starter and left for vacation for a few days. When I came home fermentation was almost at final gravity and there was a healthy krausen on top.

The date on the yeast i used was dated aug or sept too. I cant remember which but I thought that it had gone bad. Long story short, beer is in secondary and going into a keg this coming weekend. This was the first time i have ever had trouble with a smak-pac rising but the yeast was definitely alive and well.

[frspinale]

oops... I didn't see where you said it wasnt' refridgerated. Mine was definitely kept in the fridge the whole time and it was alive and well.