Old, Old Wyeast 3944 question

[mojo_wire]

Poking around the LHBS today, I found a few expired Wyeast packs on sale for about a buck. I've never used liquid yeast or made a starter, so to try it out I bought a pack of 3944 Belgian Wit yeast (it was the least inflated of the 3-4 packs available). It's been out of date for about a year.

The idea is to make a starter and if it seems the stuff is alive to throw together a 1.5 gallon batch and toss it in. I'm just trying to learn something about starters and if some leftover supplies turn into something drinkable, then that's a plus. Certainly not trying to make something great.

My question: I don't have any wheat or wheat extract. Is there anything about the yeast itself that would exclude making a simple ale (some light DME, some belgian biscuit, some victory malt, some leftover hops) with it? Is there something about the yeast that requires the presence of wheat?

I can't imagine it would be an issue for a tiny batch, but just wondering because if it nothing happens I'd like to be sure it was because the starter was a bust.

 

[BigB]

Nothing at all about the yeast requires wheat. The yeast styles are just guide posts for beers that they are known to work well in. They yeast provides certain flavors that are expected in the styles they are recommeded for. But that doesn't preclude one from making a different beer. The yeast don't really care whether they are chomping on sugar from wheat malt, barley malt, or a candy cane. Therefore, brew away. One of my all time favorite yeasts is recommeded for belgian wheat beers, but I've used it in all kinds of different beers and have nearly always been happy. But even if I wasn't so pleased with the result, I still learned a lot and had twice as much fun.

EDIT: Also, unless that yeast was grossly mishandled, a year is nothing and you should still have many many viable cells. Revvy posted a great thread a while back about some scientist/brewer extracting yeast from a beer that was hundreds of years old... and its been a while, but I think it was more like a couple thousand years old.

 

[mojo_wire]

Thanks, that answers my question perfectly. That's pretty much what I thought, and I'm comfortable that the yeast was handled just fine.

Makes me sad all my carboys are in use and all I have on hand is a 2 gallon bucket. Hey, maybe the $1 old yeast experiment turns into a lesson in yeast washing and turns out to be the least expensive brew I ever do.