First attempt at basic American wheat ale. Used Wyeast 1010 for first time, temps holding in low 70s (I live in south Louisiana so its tough to get much cooler). My smack pack did not swell as much as my other packs have. I pitched anyway, just in case. Four days into things and NO airlock activity. I took the lid off the bucket with the intentions of pitching whatever yeast I had on hand (unfortunately just a wine yeast). However, despite no airlock bubbles, there is krausen and the smell of fermentation! Any thoughts? Should I pitch the wine yeast, just leave it be, or what? Need some help as this is the first time it hasn’t gone as planned. Thanks in advance.
You will be better off making a starter every time you pitch liquid yeast. FWIW a smack pack of WYEAST or tube of White Labs have enough viable celss to ferment about a 1.040 beer, assuming the yeast is extremely fresh. If it is anywhere close to the expiration date you are really rolling the dice if you don’t make a starter. If this is too challenging then stick with dry yeast, which does not need a starter. Also, I like in Alabama and i=even if it is 110 degrees outside I can find a way to keep my fermentation in the mid 60s. You are simply not going to be making the best beer in the 70s with just about any yeasts. And if your Ambient temp is 72 you can expect the fermentation to be 6-8+ degrees higher than ambient. So find a tub of water large enough to submerse your fermentor in and rotate out a few frozen water bottles every day and knock those fermentation temps down.
It’s fine although the temps were probably a little high and some fruity esters developed which may or may not be to your liking.
Obviously you did not get a good seal on the lid and hence, no airlock activity.
RDWHAHB! Take a gravity reading in a week. Give it another week or two to clear and package it.
Next time, verify the seal, do a better job keeping determination temperatures in the mid 60’ s and all will be better!
If there is krausen then there is fermentation. You just had a bad seal on the lid. It happens.
Thanks for the replies and helping to ease my worries a bit. Will wait and see how it turns out. Just out of curiosity, is it normal to have almost no swell from the smack packs? The only other time I used one it got very big and tight. This one had almost nothing.
It depends. I’ve read on their website that it doesn’t necessarily have to swell up all the way. Also, I just got to packs in that we’re already swollen. So following their direction I put the in the fridge until I need them and they have deflated a lot. Best way to make sure it’s good would be to make a starter.
I pitched WYeast 1010 last week. Like said above, I normally do a starter with liquid yeast, but it was a last second decision to brew. My OG was 1.048 so I wasn’t terribly concerned. I didn’t have any swelling in my pack either and it took a couple days for any visual fermentation. I brewed it last Thursday and still have a fairly active fermentation.