new yeast date for starter

[olotti]

So I have some 7 month old WLP 500, washed, refrigerated and saved in 12oz pint jars since 12/23. I want to use them now in a blegian IPA Im making Monday so I made a starter this past Thursday to just wake them up and make sure they were still viable. Starter kicked off fine and had no off smells so they look good to go. So now I need to make an actual starter for the beer, when I use Brewers Friend would my new born on date be 7/9/15 which is when I made the starter to revive the yeast.

Part 2 question: I made a 2.5L starter to revive the yeast. As opposed to decanting into jars and starting all over can I just use what I've got and then step it up into another starter to hit my target pitching rate. The starter is cold crashing now, so Wednesday I can just make another starter and pitch what I have into that. I may actually overpitch a little but so be it.

 

[rcsoccer]

I would say that what you have from the 2.5 liter starter would be fine. I've used yeast that was well over 6 months old by making a starter to "wake it up". That yeast is a beast, so it should be just fine. Especially because it would be a second generation yeast since it is from a batch that you did over 7 months ago. I wouldn't worry much about the "born on date". The calculators that tell you how much yeast to use based on the date of the starter are not really accurate. The only way to really know the correct amount of yeast to add is to do a cell count with some dye under a microscope. I wouldn't worry about it much with that strain of yeast because it will ferment like mad and work just fine. Do you have the capability to do a double batch? If so, go get a vial of WLP 550 or 570. I love both of those yeasts in a standard Belgian Blond and I'm sure they would work well in a Belgian IPA.

Cheers!

 

[olotti]

Thanks for the feedback. I think because this is going to be a high gravity beer, og 1.074, I'm going to make a 2L starter to build up the yeast a little more then I'll cold crash and on brew day I'll pour off and fill one ball pint jar and then pitch the rest into the beer. That should give me enough, if not a slight over pitch, and I'll get a nice clean jar of yeast