Yeast starter with smack pack not doing anything?

Generally, a stir plate starter from a smack pack will finish in way less than the 45 hours you describe. Usually less than 24 hours.

 

The technical description is they are kaputt. No harm in extending the time, but hard to imagine anything happening after no activity with 45 hours of whirring. Also, tiring them out is not a concern . . . if they ain't gonna pop in your starter they ain't gonna pop in your primary, doesn't matter if it's a new packet or harvested.

If you know how to make starers, and it sounds like you do, I would ask the supplier to make good on a defective packet. Consider yourself lucky . . . when it happened to me I didn't know until day 2+ in the primary.

This is grasping for a straw, but consider cutting it off for several hours. then look at the slurry on the bottom (hold up and look through light). Some strains just don't produce much krausen that survives the stir bar, but they still grow, i.e. produce CO2 and multiply. If the quantity is measurably larger than when you started that means they have grown. If you don't have a reference it's tough to judge. I keep a piece of masking tape on my flasks marked at 100ml as a reference. The ultimate test is to take a gravity reading of the starter.

Oh yeah, to cover all the bases, what was date and do you know of any storage/shipping miscues?

 

Did you smack your smack pack and look for activity (pack puffing out)?

Cheers!

 

Smacking the smack pack just tells you if you have any viable yeast, and it can take hours before you see it swell. Failing to smack it does not harm the yeast in any way.

 

LHBS's are known to sell whatever is on their shelf. I'm as conscious of the date as the strain.

After you let everything settle, take a grav reading . . . if you have a wine thief this will be easy, otherwise a steady hand is required. The Wyeast smack pack is made to be "smacked" to open the nutrient mini-packet inside (usually difficult to open). In a couple of hours it should swell up, this tells you the yeast are healthy enough to move to the starter. They don't really grow any at this step, you just know they haven't been left out in the sun too long. I believe all these details are on the packet.

I always start my yeast. Whether it's new, left over from before, or harvested. I offer these tips: When pitching take note of the aroma of the starter wort and save this for later. If you get a solid krausen, which is common, all is good. But some strains just don't show you much when whirring. If so, stop the stir bar for 30-45 minutes, then look at the solids at the bottom. If it's growing that's good . . . give it a hard shake and if that creates a krausen that's good. In all cases I get a "pleasant" aroma (compared to the starter wort), even a neutral strain like 1056 has a decent aroma. You can use this technique to judge how much the yeast are growing . . . a 100ml "mark" on the outside of the flask is a good reference. This will also tell you when it's finished, i.e. no krausen with a hard shake. With a stir plate I usually have it finished within ~16 hours after it actually started, can not remember it taking more than 24 hours.

My experience is a lag time from 2 - 12 hours. Very old yeast take longer and lager strains push the limits, but often it's fast. If doing a second step it will on the lower range because it's obviously hot to trot. Adding oxygen and yeast nutrient speeds things up.

The lack of krausen when on a stir plate may be strain dependent. This weekend I started a WLP530 strain, which is very mainstream. It had only a trace of krausen, easy to miss if it had occurred late at night. No krausen ring or residue left on the inside of the flask. I pitched it Mon and 24 hours later just added a blowoff tube. Aroma inside the ferm fridge is a killer.

 

Absolutely you should. Today I smacked my Wyeast yeast and within 2 hours it fully swelled. I made a starter thereafter and a few hours later there is notable activity within the starter.

The benefits of purchasing Wyeast liquid yeast is via smacking the pack you achieve confirmation that the yeast is viable and with the yeast nutrient within the package you benefit the yeast cells.

Cheers!

 

Well, that is good news.

Why it has taken you 45+ hours (while my starter at 5-6 hours is moving along very well) is vexing.

Hopefully the beer will turn out well?

Cheers!