Anybody else have trouble smacking these packs? I ordered 2 recently from NB (both dated mid April) and have forcefully smacked each one about 30x and still haven’t ruptured the nutrient part. When I first started moving the nutrient around in the pack it almost felt solid. The yeast was mailed with an ice pack and I immediately put it in the salad compartment of my refrigerator. One of yeasts is 1968 and when I smacked that one previously the thing swelled up so fast and large that I thought it would burst.
Don’t actually “smack” it. Push the packet to a corner and apply pressure until it bursts.
What he said.
I just got a pack of 3522. It took 6 days to arrive. The ice pack certainly didn’t last that long, I don’t know how much it helped. In any case, the heat had already ‘activated’ the yeast pack enough that it was too swollen to break the nutrient capsule. I was a little bit worried that the yeast might not still be viable, but I needed a starter anyway. Seems to be working fine, there was plenty of activity this morning. Hopefully even if a large fraction of the cells were dead the starter will leave me with a nice healthy batch of yeast.
If it swelled, the yeast was active and should work fine for you. And you should ALWAYS make a starter unless you are fermenting a low-gravity beer AND the date on the pack is very recent.
