Out of date yeast - make starter?

[willyroyale]

my yeast knowledge is sketchy at best-

I have a packet of Wyeast San Diego Super WLP-090. manuf aug 16 Best before date 10 Feb 17.

so I don't want to waste it at here its ~ 12euros a go. Thought id make a starter and if good then stick it in the fridge for 10 days until I can use it.

any problems with my plan? could taste profile, etc be affected by age or is it largely a factor of viable cells?

so had a look at the sticky on how to do this and it seems like it should work. if I spilt some off to a jar and store in the fridge in say a kilner jar. how long would this be viable? and how would I know if the yeast count is then good to pitch into future worts.

could I continue this process indefinitely to keep a steady supply?

apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I want to get this yeast used before its dead and I'm hols tomorrow.

cheers

 

[Leon103]

Yes you can do a starter and keep in the fridge for 10 days.

Yes you can split and re-use but do another starter before reusing

 

[IainM]

Yeah, what Leon said. Starter is definitely the way to go. Yes, you can overbuild your starter and keep some for making more starters in the future. You can keep doing this indefinitely, but you might end up changing the character of the yeast over time if the yeast you keep is always taken from your most recently brewed starter. It is probably better to do a larger overbuild on your first or second starter with the strain (by 500ml or so more), then make all your subsequent starters from that vial. Yeast will keep for ages in the fridge. Hell, people have cultured yeast from 200 year old bottles of beer.

 

[MyQul]

Yup, as others have said make a starter. You can then keep it in the fridge for two weeks or so, then you'll need to make another starter.

Overbuilding is definatetly the way to go if you want to keep the strain. This is what I do with my Fullers strain . You can get at least 13 re-uses out of it if not indefinately so those 12 euro can be stretched a long way

http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

 

[willyroyale]

many thanks chaps