Short expiry date on dried yeast

[Simonh82]

I started a brew on Friday night. Everything went well and I pitched the yeast at 3AM (it was a late start). The yeast was Danstar BRY-97 American West Coast. I rehydrated in 100ml of water as per usual.

I checked for activity on Saturday and there was nothing. I checked again today and still no airlock activity (I know the seal on the bucket is good). This afternoon I cracked the lid and there was nothing, no krausen, no bubbles at all. Felling nervous I went to rehydrate the second packet of this yeast I had and that was when I noticed that it expired in April 2016!

I rehydrated some Nottingham (Wilko Girven Ale) and have just pitched that, so finger crossed.

I'm a bit ****** off about the Danstar yeast though as I bought it in Late January and expect yeast to have about a year expiry date on them. I didn't even check and just chucked in my fridge to use as rainy day yeast. The expiry date is shorter than fresh yeast!

I'm doubly annoyed as this is my most extravagantly hopped beer yet with 175g of Citra, Chinook, Centennial and Eldorado already in the beer and a further 150g planned for dry hopping.

I was very careful with sanitisation, I bleached the fermentor first, then used star-san before the beer went in. Just hoping the always reliable Wilko yeast can win the fight against any nasties.

 

[MyQul]

I'm quite surprised, as it's not that much out of date (It's not like the yeast says, 'right lads,it's June the first, down tools) and you re-hydrated it too

 

[Simonh82]

I was really surprised too. I was reading Yeast by Chris White and he says dry yeast loses 20% viability a year at room temp and 3% I a fridge.

I wonder if they had a box slip down the back of a cupboard and sit o a heating pipe.

 

[Personal91]

I was really surprised too. I was reading Yeast by Chris White and he says dry yeast loses 20% viability a year at room temp and 3% I a fridge.

I wonder if they had a box slip down the back of a cupboard and sit o a heating pipe.

its a roll of the dice with any yeast you buy as you don't know the conditions it was exposed too

 

[Dutto]

Whether or not the yeast was out of date it does demonstrate why it is wise to make a yeast starter to ensure that:

a) Your yeast is still active.

b) It gets off to a flying start when it is pitched.

I'm pretty sure that the Wilco Ale Yeast will do the business. It's never failed for me! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Johnny H]

The BRY-97 is a bit of a slow starter. 48 hours is not unusual, and I've read of examples where it's taken three or four days . The slow starting behaviour in combination with your yeast being beyond its shelf life might have been the problem here.

Hope things go well from here. If the beer based on a blend of different yeasts turns out really excellent you can enjoy it in the safe knowledge that it's going to be truly unique and you will most likely never been able to reproduce it :)

 

[Simonh82]

Whether or not the yeast was out of date it does demonstrate why it is wise to make a yeast starter to ensure that:

a) Your yeast is still active.

b) It gets off to a flying start when it is pitched.

I'm pretty sure that the Wilco Ale Yeast will do the business. It's never failed for me! :thumb: :thumb:

I do usually use liquid yeast with a healthy starter but I only got back from holiday the day before and wanted to get a brew straight on. This is why I always keep a few packets of dry yeast in the fridge as back up.

I checked this morning and the Wilko yeast seems to be doing the trick. Regular bubbling from the airlock, so hopefully all is not lost! Who knows, maybe the Bry-97 is also kicking in? Hopefully the two yeasts shouldn't clash too badly. They are both pretty neutral.

 

[Simonh82]

The BRY-97 is a bit of a slow starter. 48 hours is not unusual, and I've read of examples where it's taken three or four days . The slow starting behaviour in combination with your yeast being beyond its shelf life might have been the problem here.

Hope things go well from here. If the beer based on a blend of different yeasts turns out really excellent you can enjoy it in the safe knowledge that it's going to be truly unique and you will most likely never been able to reproduce it :)

I've not read that before but I have to admit I didn't really look into this strain too much. I just figured it was another version of the Chico strain (US-05/WLP001). I did like the fact that it was meant to be more flocculent than US-05 which I found very powdery.

 

[Simonh82]

@Johnny H I've been doing a bit of reading around the lag on BRY-97. As you suggest it does seem like a very common issue. Maybe it would have got there in the end but 48 hours seemed like a very long time. It seems that some people have waited even longer and it's taken off in the end.

I guess that really means I won't know whether it is the BRY-97 or the Wilko Nottingham that is doing the work. I think I've got a pretty good idea what Nottingham does, so I should be able to detect if there is a strong influence from that.

Hopefully the results will be tasty.

 

[Robin54]

Ive just bought some yeast and wrote the ex date on them in BIG LETTERS with an indelible pen since the printed ones are TINY

 

[Simonh82]

Ive just bought some yeast and wrote the ex date on them in BIG LETTERS with an indelible pen since the printed ones are TINY

I don't even have that excuse. The date was pretty big. I just didn't check it and didn't think it would only be a few months.

Anyway it seems I may have been premature and it could have just been the very long lag phase this yeast has.

 

[Johnny H]

@Johnny H I've been doing a bit of reading around the lag on BRY-97. As you suggest it does seem like a very common issue. Maybe it would have got there in the end but 48 hours seemed like a very long time. It seems that some people have waited even longer and it's taken off in the end.
[...]

I would agree that 48 hours is a very long wait, and I think you did the right thing.

On a couple of occasions I left the cylinder with my hygrometer sample after boiling standing around (of course, no yeast), and after two or three days something visible starts to happen. Granted, that's an open vessel and a FV is closed in most cases but still the risk increases that something else takes hold with increasing lag time.