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...