Went to the lhbs and picked up ingredients for my belgian dubbel. They didn’t have WL500, so I opted for the wyeast 1214 since that’s thought to be the chimay(ish) strain. Got home, smacked it, shook it up. A few hours go by, no swelling. Hmm, that’s odd. Made a starter anyway, figuring surely it would be fine. 15 hours later, no sign of starter activity. 3oz dme in 1qt water. 1/4 tsp wyeast nutrient. Cooled to 65 and pitched yeast.
Standard practice on making the starter. Is this a phantom? A dud? Should I pitch the decanted starter anyway? Pick up a new smack pack?
I can’t say that I’ve seen such a wyeast product. I’ve been happy with both white labs and wyeast in the past.
edit: date on package was June 10. I’ve had older…
Bummer - I would say that if it hasn’t taken off by now - it probably won’t. Something has happened to the smack pack along the way - was it really old? Sometimes when they sit around in the homebrew shop too long (like many months) they will die off - if only a bit over the expiration date they will generally take off.
Also - if it was new - it could have been how it was shipped - this time of year anything sitting in a shipping truck can get VERY hot which would kill off the yeast.
It might be the fault of the packaging company but most likely not altho it would be worth calling them to see if anyone else has had a problem with that particular batch if you can rule out all of the other suggestions.
The shop you bought it from should replace it tho regardless.
FWIW, I just successfully started up and used a smack pack of WY3522 that was a year and a half old. I’ve successfully used smack packs as old as 3 1/2 years.
Yeah, take it back and get a new one. Even if you don’t have the packaging let them know, but in the future if it doesn’t swell in the pack just return it. I’m pretty sure Wyeast gives them credit for unexpired packs that don’t swell.
ok, good to know. Thanks for all your input. I’ll stop by after work today and see what they can do for me. Maybe I’ll just have to get a couple packages since I’m brewing tonight.
I emailed wyeast last week on the 13th. No response. If you’ve ever tried contacting them, has it been successful? I was just curious to know if there was a problem with the batch or just an isolated incident. Nada. I’m not looking to be compensated (since the hb shop already did that), just curious.
That being said, the homebrew shop was very nice and gave me a new smackpack for free even though I didn’t have the package(granted it was the same guy working as when I got the yeast 2 days prior and I’m in there quite often). Smacked that one and swelled up within 30min. Got a vial of WL500 though just in case. Pitched everything (the new smackpack, the vial, and the decanted starter) and my dubbel is finishing up and smelling wonderful. The figs and dates really accentuate the belgian aromatic, dark munich, and special B.
I have used that strain twice and it is a very slow starter. You definitely have to wait a while and the belgians that I made with it taste better with age. This strain was a real test of my patience.