First time using this. It came smacked already. Would it be worth making a starter or save time and just pour it in. It's 1056.
IMO, it's almost always worth making a starter, regardless of whether the pouch was accidentally smacked already or not. ETA: I'd recommend checking with a yeast calculator like Mr. Malty, Yeast Calc, or BrewCipher, to see if a starter (and how big a starter) is recommended.
It's a sierra nevada torpedo clone i'm doing on sunday so if i do a starter i want it going on friday night. O.G should be 1062 hopefully.
I would recommend that you make a starter for a beer of that gravity. At the end of the day this is your choice. Cheers!
What's the date on that yeast? The first Wyeast packet shipped to me had already been "smacked". It never started.
1056 is always like that at my lhbs I bet if you check it out the nutrient pack is in tact. Not sure why that's the only yeast that swells a bit ahead of time. If nutrients got to it it would be like a balloon ready to pop
Either way starters are the only way to go with liquid yeast. I also swear by washing yeast it's saved me a ton of money over the years
I did that with wlp001(cali) & 011 (euro). The 001 was easy to see the separation but the 011 is cloudy and harder to see.
Yes, the Mr. Malty tool assumes that 21 million yeast cells die every month (for the first 4 months). This is a very conservative death estimate according to a conversation I had with Dr. Chris White at a National Homebrewers Conference. In all probability your smack pack has more than 50 billion viable yeast cells but the specific value is a guess/estimate at best. Even if you have the ability to conduct a cell count using Methylene blue solution this method yields inaccurate values when more than 5% of the cells are non-viable. http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/cell-counting-viability-testing-0 Cheers!
White Lab's (Dr. Chris White's company if I'm not mistaken) says "After 30 days in the vial, the viability of our yeast is 75-85%, which is very high for liquid yeast." That's 15%-25% die-off in the first month. 21% is about in the middle of that range. And how about the "which is very high for liquid yeast?" Sounds like other vendors' liquid yeasts might not fare as well, at least according to White Labs. OP happens to be using Wyeast. Anticipating your next objection, that 21M deaths per month for months 2, 3, and 4 just seems outrageous, I have an email from Wyeast that says this... "I think it would be best to base your rate of die off as a function of the original count. Let me know if you have further questions." Of course, I suppose it's possible these statement are misinformation, and that the truth is saved for shooting the breeze with NHC attendees.
Actually, doesn't that seem totally possible? If I were a product producer, I would be very conservative as to what I expressed in formal channels in order to avoid any claims I was defrauding my customers, but might in a casual conversation express something I think might be likely more accurate, but don't want to guarantee.
You might be interested in watching the Beersmith podcast with Dr. Chris White. http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/08/11/yeast-with-dr-chris-white-from-white-labs-beersmith-podcast-86/ The discussion of homebrewing yeast product shelf-life starts at 14:00. He mentions that for the vials there is greater than 50% viability at 4 months for the vials. Early indications are that the PurePitch products have greater than 50% viability at the 6-8 month mark. The Mr. Malty yeast calculator starts off with 97% viability (i.e., 97 billion yeast cells). After 4 months it indicates 11% viability (i.e., 11 billion yeast cells). In comparison, Dr. Chris White in his Beersmith podcast stated they measured > 50% viability in 4 month old vials of White Labs yeast. Quite a difference between 11% and > 50%. Cheers!
