Liquid Yeast - Wyeast 2633

[Julien-Hamburg]

Hi Everyone,

Today someone gave me for free an 6 month overdue Wyeast 2633 / October fest Lager ... I am planning to do one or two starter to revive it.

I made a recept on Brewfather - Octoberfest - 25L - 6.5 Kg fermentable. However, using the pitch tool from Brewfather, it ask me to do 2 successive starter. It seems quite a lot to me as on the package (without considering overdue date), as it say on the package suitable for 19L.

Also I guess, the yeast is still active, I crack up the small yeast nutriment package (as indicated) and the package already start to swell. Or Maybe it is just an artefact ...

It is my very first time experience with liquid yeast ! Made many with dry yeast but never with liquid.

Any experience with that? Any advice?

Cheers ...

 

[Larse]

Not Wyeast, but White Labs and also used an out of date one. Although mine was out only a week or two.

Made a starter with 250g DME in 2l on a stir plate. Was a bit slow starting off, but got going after about 12 hours. Cold crashed it and poured off most of the wort, leaving me with a good deal of slurry. I kept back enough to fill two WL pouches and had enough left to make another starter (same as first). Pitched that in my lager and went great guns, no issues.

So although I did two starters, the first was easily enough to pitch. Those liquid yeasts don't degrade as much as the online calculators would have you believe. Having said that, the second starter was a deal more vigorous than the first.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

However, using the pitch tool from Brewfather, it ask me to do 2 successive starter. It seems quite a lot to me as on the package (without considering overdue date), as it say on the package suitable for 19L.

The lower temperatures of lager fermentation mean slower growth so you generally need a lot more yeast for lager than when fermenting at warmer temperatures. One way round this is to just ferment a big warmer...

So the Wyeast packs are a bit low for 19l even when fresh, a bigger volume and age will mean you have quite a lot less than would be ideal.

OTOH I've revived yeast that was nearly 5 years old, although it's not ideal.

 

[YeastFace]

Wyeast packages are marketed as containing at least 100 million cells, not sure if when packaged or if used before 6 month date.

Other than for a very low gravity ale, that's probably quite optimistic.

You are brewing something strong and a lager, both of which require a higher pitch rate.

I've not used Wyeast for a while, but given you can get double the amount og yeast from other manufacturers for about the same or less as their pouches, I don't see that changing. Unless I'm lucky enough to get a freebie.