Hello,

I started a batch of MRB Mom's Honey Wheat Treat the other day with a couple of modifications.

1. I didn't have the Tettnanger hops so used the 1/2 pack of Liberty hops that I had.
2. I had a package of Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier yeast so I used that. Though it was a couple months past prime date but it's been kept in the fridge up to when I made this batch (leaving it out a few hours before smacking it to warm up).

I followed the recipe as normal, punched the package of yeast and after a few hours it didn't seem like it swelled all that much but I put it in the keg. Stored it away and after 24hrs nothing...crickets...no krausen, no smell, no raising tempurature, nothing!

At this point I was concerned that either the yeast was dead or I did something wrong so I opened the keg and poured in 2 packets of the stock MR Beer yeast and stirred it up. 24hrs later I have a nice krausen and a very pleasant though interesting almost fruity smell from the cap (not what I was expecting from the ingredients).

Can anyone shed some light on why the orginal Wyeast didn't seem to be doing anything? Does that yeast take a little longer to start working and I should've been more patient or do you think it was dead?

Thanks,

Well, older liquid yeast will be less viable. Since you didn't wait for the pack to fully swell, the cells that were left probably weren't all that active yet...so you were simply experiencing a longer than usual lag time.

24 hours is a little premature to repitch, but the good news is that the yeast combo should work pretty well together...the Mr. Beer yeast is a touch neutral in terms of esters for a wit yeast, but it does give off some great wit-style phenols. So the fruitiness may be coming from the 3944, which was just taking a bit longer to get active.

If you like the blend, you can probably reuse it once or twice more before one strain starts to dominate too much over the other.

Good luck!