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"bigears":14yesdo5 wrote: I've heard a rule of thumb is to give it a day per month after manufacture. [/quote:14yesdo5]

I've heard this too, but in my experience it is unduly pessimistic. I've had some very old packs (several years) and, from memory, the longest I've had to wait for the packs to inflate is about 10 days.

"bigears":14yesdo5 wrote: It should be OK, give it another day or two, make sure you leave it somewhere warm.[/quote:14yesdo5]

I agree. I've never had a Wyeast pack fail and I've usually used them long after any best before date (but I have stored them in the fridge).

Cheers, Les

I have the White labs catalogue on my lap as we speak. Does anyone have any specific requests.

Hmmm, you'd probably be safe getting some
London Ale
Irish Ale
European Ale
California Ale

Although many of those can be catered for by the dried yeasts. We've been using loads of US-05 for the past few brews, but coming into winter we're going for porters and dark ales. Maybe the S-04 will do the job, but we've had good experiences with the Wyeast London Ale and Irish Ale packs, so I'd be willing to try the White Labs ones.

The only other time we'd buy liquid yeasts at this stage is for more special beers, like strong Belgian ales, maybe Kolsch (we have a Wyeast pack we're waiting to try), so maybe those more "specialist" ones would be good to have in stock?

Sorry, that was a bit of a ramble... I'm drinking my first ever Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, and it's distracting (in a fulsome way <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->).

<edit>
Actually, I think I'd like some European Ale yeast, unless someone can suggest a good dry alternative for making Alt.

Foreign Extra is a tasty beast.

To follow up, yup, it did swell eventually. Took about two days - a little longer than the 3 to 5 hours mentioned on the pack alright. <!-- s:? --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_confused.gif" alt="" title="Confused" /><!-- s:? -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="frink.nuigalway.ie/~stephen/wyeast/dsc_2022a.jpg">frink.nuigalway.ie/~stephen/wyeast/dsc_2022a.jpg
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="frink.nuigalway.ie/~stephen/wyeast/dsc_2024a.jpg">frink.nuigalway.ie/~stephen/wyeast/dsc_2024a.jpg

That is definate activity, but I have seen more swelling than that.