Old yeast - what are my chances?

[matt76]

I popped into The Home Brew So earlier today to grab a few bits - as i paid i was invited to have a rummage through the box and help myself to some free out of date yeast that was otherwise going in the bin.

So i now have a pack of White Labs WLP005 and 013 - i think one is August 2018 and the other maybe May 2018!!!

What are my chances of culturing up something useful if i bung it in a starter? In thinking nothing venture, nothing gained

 

[Drunkula]

99.9% success. If you're doing a starter the amount of initial yeast only matters at the extremes at the start - like 1 viable cell vs 1000 viable cells still = BAJJILGGLIONS in te same starter. You literallly do have nothing to lose.

 

[Hoddy]

A two stage starter. Maybe a 3 stage if you have the time. Once completed you’ll have enough cells for a nice big 25 litre batch to pitch it into.

 

[matt76]

Well I brought this up to room temperature and pitched it into a starter yesterday. Best before date was 7th August 2018 - no sign of life yet but the one time I accidentally used >6 month old Wyeast in a brew I think it took about 48 hours to get going. Fingers crossed.

 

[Hoddy]

View attachment 17788

Well I brought this up to room temperature and pitched it into a starter yesterday. Best before date was 7th August 2018 - no sign of life yet but the one time I accidentally used >6 month old Wyeast in a brew I think it took about 48 hours to get going. Fingers crossed.

How big is the starter? You may be on the edge of risk here with stressing the yeast from a small cell count into a big starter. You may have been better going into a two stage. But like you say fingers crossed.

 

[matt76]

How big is the starter? You may be on the edge of risk here with stressing the yeast from a small cell count into a big starter. You may have been better going into a two stage. But like you say fingers crossed.

750ml, OG 1.040

 

[Hoddy]

That's right on the edge of a small two stage starter.

You for sure would need another 1.036 / 1.6L starter to be able to pitch a healthy rate into a 22L brew circa 1.055.

Like to say time will tell. If you haven't got it raging by day two then you may be at a loss.

 

[matt76]

I'm not too worried - firstly I only brew 12L batches so don't need so much yeast anyway. Second, the yeast was free so it's just an experiment anyway and if I'm stuck I have a great pack of the equivalent Wyeast 1028 in the fridge anyway.

 

[matt76]

Update:
No sign of life so I'm gonna ditch it. Even if by some miracle it did suddenly spring to life in not sure I'd want to risk spoiling an entire batch for the sake of a few quid.

It was an interesting experiment with free yeast so nothing lost, and i have a fresh pack of the equivalent Wyeast 1028 in the fridge for my next brew

 

[MyQul]

I had some 6 months old CML kolsch slurry that i put into a starter a couple of weeks ago. After about three days nothing had happened. Then it started to ferment but it looked wrong, so I chucked it.