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Author Topic: Wyeast  (Read 7314 times)

Offline rayallen

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Wyeast
« on: March 03, 2011, 10:50:07 pm »
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..

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2011, 10:53:01 pm »
What was the manufacturing date on the package?  If it's fresh it should be fine, depending on your OG.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline Hokerer

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2011, 08:27:24 am »
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.
Joe

Offline rayallen

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2011, 09:11:41 am »
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.

Thank you for the information. Being a newbie im not to fimiliar on Yeast brands/providers.

Is there a particular company that is preferred over others when it comes to getting good live healthy yeast?

Offline denny

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2011, 09:23:31 am »
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.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2011, 10:05:12 am »
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?
Tom Schmidlin

Offline rayallen

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2011, 11:56:38 am »
I used the Belgian Wit 3944

Offline majorvices

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #7 on: March 04, 2011, 12:03:38 pm »
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.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #8 on: March 04, 2011, 12:09:15 pm »
I think your beer will be fine.

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.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline euge

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2011, 12:22:29 pm »
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.

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Offline majorvices

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2011, 12:29:54 pm »
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.

Offline denny

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2011, 12:35:36 pm »
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...

They're both fine products.  It comes down to personal opinion AFAIAC.


As far as starters go I'd like to see more appropriate cell counts in those vials and packs and skip that step altogether.

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.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2011, 12:41:40 pm »
As far as starters go I'd like to see more appropriate cell counts in those vials and packs and skip that step altogether.

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.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline euge

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #13 on: March 04, 2011, 12:50:46 pm »
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.

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. :-[

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...

They're both fine products.  It comes down to personal opinion AFAIAC.


As far as starters go I'd like to see more appropriate cell counts in those vials and packs and skip that step altogether.

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.

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.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

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Offline majorvices

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Re: Wyeast
« Reply #14 on: March 04, 2011, 01:03:09 pm »
but my LHBS doesn't carry the propagator packs.

Back in the day that was the highest cell count you could get.