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Smack Pack problem
I just got ingredients in today and I ordered an Activator pack to go with it. So, I smack the thing and shook it up and heard a hiss. It has a very small hole at the top of the bag. And obviously it's not swelling due to the leak. I was wondering if it's safe to use, or should I just picth dry yeast intead?
When do you plan on using it? If within a day or so, I would spray some sanitizer into a ziploc bag, and spray the top of the activator where it is leaking, put he whole thing in the ziplock bag, and let it be.
I would say pitch it and watch the batch for 12 hours to see what happens. The Smack Package swelling is to let you know the yeast is viable which it most likely still is. I would watch for about 12 hours and then if no activity then pitch some dry yeast. If you really want to be sure you could stick the whole package in a ziploc bag and see what happens over the next four or five hours. I would think it would swell somewhat giving you an indication of the yeast condition.
I mess up, I meant to say that I got it yesterday not today. And I plan to use it today. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. I was worried about contamination. But I'll give it a go. I still have a few hours until I'll be ready to pitch, maybe I'll try the ziplock bag and see if anything might happen.
You'll be fine, main thing is keeping that escape hole clean.
thirsty wrote:
You'll be fine, main thing is keeping that escape hole clean.
Always good advice.
Ok, it started to ferment by the next morning. It went a little slow, not bubbling as much as I'm used to. I'm not sure if this is because I didn't get the "nutrient" pack to open fully or not. I didn't want to smack it around too much more after I found the hole. This pack had the nutrient bag fused in the middle to make two smaller bags. Only one of them broke open. I let it go for a week, bubbling slowly the whole time. Yesterday all activity in the airlock ceased. So I thought, "Ok, I can rack this to the secondary tomorrow, right?" Wrong. It wasn't doing anything when I left to go to work this morning. But by seven AM just as I'm starting work (over time, premium time) I get a call from the wife. She informed me that my beer was making a mess. Blow off after it stopped bubbling? I tried to tell her how to rig the blow off tube, but she didn't do it. She just put a towel around it until I got home to clean it up. Now the batch is back to bubbling again. It's been at 74F for a week now and I used Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit. Any explanations as to why this happened?
Fermentation can kick on and off with different yeast strains. Belgians in particular are in their own world. A good practice is not to watch the airlock to determine activity, but wait until the gravity does not change.
It is also a good idea to wait a few days after fermentation is complete to let the yeast "clean up" its bi-products.
That hole in the bag and the accompanying hissing noise is likely an indication that the yeast was viable. It's also pretty likely that the escaping gas was pushing away any freefloating bacteria.
Jen wrote:
That hole in the bag and the accompanying hissing noise is likely an indication that the yeast was viable. It's also pretty likely that the escaping gas was pushing away any freefloating bacteria.
Nah, it was hissing 'cause I was shaking it. It didn't make any noises when it was left alone. It only made that noise when I first tried to activate it, before I knew about the hole. It seems okay though, and I plan on racking to the secondary tonight. I need my primary back by sunday. I'm gonna take a gravity reading and a sample taste to make sure that all went alright.
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