I brewed a Belgian White tonight and in my haste managed not to read the directions on the wyeast packet.
Tells you to burst the pouch on the inside, shake it together and let it sit for a while and swell before putting it in the wort.
What I did open the packet poor it in and then notice the pouch. So I burst the ouch open poured it in the wort. I capped the trub and gave it a real good shake. Hope that did the trick.
Anyone else use Wyeast see this as a problem?
Previously I used a different brand of dry yeast and wasnt expecting this. Only my 2nd brew so im learning as I go…
The purpose of bursting that pack and letting it swell is just to tell you that there’s live yeast in the pack. Not going through that process won’t hurt anything.
What you should do to improve things, though, is to make a starter with that yeast pack. That kills two birds - it tells you that the yeast is alive AND it get your cell counts up to what they should be for pitching. While Wyeast claims that the pack is directly pitchable, in general, if you do the calculations, there’s nowhere near enough cells.
The 2 providers that are most pervasive are White Labs and Wyeast. Both make great products. Most experienced brewers will tell you that neither product should be pitched into beers over 1.040 OG without a starter. For information on yeast and starters, see mrmalty.com.
As long as your OG was in the normal range for a wit beer don’t worry about it too much, your beer will be fine as long as the yeast was fresh. A starter may have been better but it’s not absolutely required. Which yeast did you use?
Agree that as long as your yeast is fresh I wouldn;t worry about underpitching for a wheat beer, especially a wit. However the advice about starters for liquid yeast is spot on.
Some things to keep in mind for future batches:
Slight underpitching can enhance yeast character, which you might want in a wit or hefeweizen or other styles. Pitching a lot of yeast is best for when you don’t want a lot of yeast character, like in lagers or when you want a clean fermentation profile.
If your liquid yeast is not fresh it may have lost more viability than you think, so a starter is a good idea. In fact, a starter is never a bad idea, it’s just not always required.
I thought this would turn into the relative merits of White Labs vs Wyeast? Anyway, according to the Mr Malty I still underpitched my 12.5 plato Alt, where 1 vial for 2.8 gallons should have been 1.9 vials or 98 billion cells…
As far as starters go I’d like to see more appropriate cell counts in those vials and packs and skip that step altogether.
The real problem ends up being viability. For instance, when I order yeast from WL I order in a 2bbl pitch and have it overnighted. The yeast is guaranteed to be at 98% viability when it leaves the door. You can’t really do that on the homebrew level because of the price. That’s why starters are important, especially for yeast that is older or higher gravity beers.
They’re both fine products. It comes down to personal opinion AFAIAC.
This is something I’ve discussed with Wyeast. Seems like homebrewers are notoriously frugal and the feeling is that they wouldn’t want to pay the price.
You can get the appropriate amount by buying more packs if that’s the way you want to go. If you want to make starters to save money or to verify viability, you probably don’t want to spend $20 to get enough yeast for your batch straight out of the pack. If anything, some people might prefer smaller packs so they could save money, but my LHBS doesn’t carry the propagator packs.
That’s good to know. After I pitched the recently purchased vial the date was noticed. Best before Feb-o6-11! If I had made a starter then maybe there wouldn’t have been a 48 hour lag. :-[
Hmmm. Is that an assumption on their part I wonder? Despite my own inherent laziness I’ve always gotten better beer from pitching active yeast. So it’s probably a good thing in the big scheme of things.
Im not concerned about the price of yeast. The way I see it, one 5g batch will make me ~50 bottles give or take. Some of the beers I drink I will pay $15+ for a 12pack. Heck some of them I pay $15 for a 6 pack. So if it takes paying a little more cash to be able to pitch the correct amount a yeast so be it.
What do they say “you get what you pay for”. Ive quickly learned that pretty much anyone can make a beer, but its quality im after. If I can replicate Hoegaarden I will be one happy camper.
Ok, I brewed and pitched the yeast March 3rd around 9pm. Its the 4th day now.
Im pretty sure its not fermenting, I made sure to wash my hands really well and took a peek inside the fermenting bucket and it hasnt foamed up like my last batch of beer did. My last batch fermented with 12hrs but I used a dry yeast and a different brand.
I dug the Wyeast pouch out of the trash and it was passed exp date.
Should I give it another day or should I go ahead and pitch some more yeast. Unfortunately I dont have any because I didnt buy extra. came with the kit and only my 2nd brew. Im going to have to order it online or try and find some locally.
