Yeast help

I made a Lefse blonde ale last night, i had a Belgian abbey smack pack. i smacked it about 4-6 hours before i was going to need it, and when it came time to pitch, it had not inflated much, if at all. when i poured it, something seemed off, almost like there wasn't yeast in it. i let it sit over night, and nothing happened. opened it up and nothing was going on, i then pitched a half pack of s-05, and a WL Brett C. PLEASE ADVISE!

Just because the pack did not swell does not mean the yeast was not viable. Second, it's always advised to make a starter for all liquid yeast strains for any beer that has an OG of 1.040 or greater. Third, you are being impatient.

Fermentation can take up to 72 hours to begin showing signs of active fermentation by witnessing krausen formation.

You should also be using a site likewww.mrmalty.com or www.yeastcalc.com to determine the proper pitch rate for the beer in question.

Initially you under pitched the beer, now you have added two additonal completely different strains of yeast with the possibility of completely over pitching the beer with no ability to determine the flavor profile of the finished product. No doubt you will have beer in the end, it's just anybody's guess as to what the beer will taste like

You will have an interesting beer.

You can't wait 24 hours to see if the initial yeast has taken off, so you pitch replacement yeast that will take 6 to 9 months to finish.

I think you will find the abbey will be the one doing the work, but now you have the Brett in there and it will be working, and changing the beer for the best part of a year.

duboman said:

it's always advised to make a starter for all liquid yeast strains for any beer that has an OG of 1.040 or greater. Third, you are being impatient.

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This. If you aren't going to do a starter, using liquid yeast (while more style-specific) means you'll typically have to pitch more than one pack/vial.

duboman rightly pointed out one of the most important ingredients in ANY batch of brew---patience.

I ordered last week, a PYREX 2L Narrow Mouth Erlenmeyer Flask. So that I can start doing starters, that way i know they are viable for pitching. I know I panicked I didnt want my batch to go to waste. its been over a week, and the bubbling has come to a slow creep. at the end of the two weeks, since i used Brett C, should I just throw it in a secondary for a few months then?

That particular strain takes awhile to get moving. I used it in my dubbel last year and it was the first yeast strain i used with a starter and it still took awhile to get moving. The pack was smacked and didn't inflate at all over 24-36 hours. I pitched to the starter and used a stir plate and noticed that it had taken off and smelled really good after 24 hours on the plate so i pitched it. It did absolutely NOTHING for 40 hours and then it went nuts. Blew out my airlock within six hours of starting, thank god I just happened to be in the basement when it went.

I can't offer any advice on the Brett but next time just know that this particular strain will take awhile.

big1show said:

I ordered last week, a PYREX 2L Narrow Mouth Erlenmeyer Flask. So that I can start doing starters, that way i know they are viable for pitching. I know I panicked I didnt want my batch to go to waste. its been over a week, and the bubbling has come to a slow creep. at the end of the two weeks, since i used Brett C, should I just throw it in a secondary for a few months then?

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I'd recommend you leave it alone. Take a gravity reading now, then compare it in 3 months time. Then a couple of months after that. Brett works slow; bottle when it has been stable for about a month.