11 month old yeast

[JDFlow]

Friday I used a jar of 11 month old yeast to make a starter. I put it on the stir plate and nothing happened until this morning. Krausen! Anyone who says yeast dies after a few weeks/months is incorrect.

 

[kharper6]

I did the same, 11 months exactly, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it was washed, was infection free.

Used it on a ten gallon saison, the yeast ruined the beer, tasted awful.

Yes it was the yeast, I know because I set aside 2 gallons of the wort for something else and it ended up tasting great.

Never using old yeast again.

 

[dinnerstick]

i think the problem with old yeast like that (as in, sitting in the fridge in a jam jar) is that it's prone to getting weird stuff growing in it, rather than that it all dies.

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

But what about sealed White Labs vials? Occasionally my lhbs gives out of date vials for free.

 

[dyqik]

It's probably not weird stuff, and not _all_ the yeast will be dead after 11 months. But you will have very low viability, and will need a lot of generations to build the initial tiny numbers of yeast up. Hence the delay until krausen.

That many generations can also cause problems with the yeast getting stressed, which is why people step up from slants and the like using small starters initially, and only go to full size starters after a couple of steps.

 

[jalmeida]

I did the same, 11 months exactly, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it was washed, was infection free.

Used it on a ten gallon saison, the yeast ruined the beer, tasted awful.

Yes it was the yeast, I know because I set aside 2 gallons of the wort for something else and it ended up tasting great.

Never using old yeast again.

I am betting the issue with that was not necessarily infected yeast as much as not enough viable yeast. The less yeast pitched can increase the risk of infection. A healthy high cell count pitch would have decreased the chances of anything else like bacteria from taking over. Any beer can go bad even with healthy yeast, but it becomes a tug of war between yeast and bacteria as far as what takes over. No beer is free of bacteria or other micro organisms. No matter how clean you are. But, healthy yeast pitching will not let the bacteria take over unless the bacteria is already out numbering the yeast(ie under pitched or not sanitized enough).


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[khawk95]

I did the same, 11 months exactly, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it was washed, was infection free.

Used it on a ten gallon saison, the yeast ruined the beer, tasted awful.

Yes it was the yeast, I know because I set aside 2 gallons of the wort for something else and it ended up tasting great.

Never using old yeast again.

I had a similar experience. Did a two step stater to ensure enough yeast, but the beer just doesn't taste right. I would spend 7 bucks to make sure I have good beer by getting fresh.


Roed Haus Brewery

 

[JDFlow]

It's probably not weird stuff, and not _all_ the yeast will be dead after 11 months. But you will have very low viability, and will need a lot of generations to build the initial tiny numbers of yeast up. Hence the delay until krausen.

That many generations can also cause problems with the yeast getting stressed, which is why people step up from slants and the like using small starters initially, and only go to full size starters after a couple of steps.

That's what I did. Started from a 2 cup starter and went up to 2 liters. By the end krausen was shooting out of the flask. I hope it doesn't suck. And if it does lesson learned.

 

[cjgenever]

Keep its posted

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[dlester]

Anytime reuse yeast, my primary concern is contamination and viability. I first let mine sit out and warm up a few days to see if any bacteria grows. Come to find, some of my previously reused yeast was infected. However, my recent batches have sit out a few days with no sign of contamination.

Prior to use I clean the yeast by swirling it up with a sanitized spoon and use only what is in solution after 20 minutes. The rest that has settled at the bottom is thrown out.

Regarding the viability. I agree with the others that a two step process would be in line for such an old yeast. And, a strong Krausen is a good sign of viability.

Cheers and good luck,

 

[fearwig]

I repitch slurry on almost every brew and have never had an infection. I don't think an old jar of yeast is much more likely to transmit infection than a new one, if stored well, at least not for a very long time.

With that said, I think repeat significant die-offs incase your chance of winding up with a yeast that doesn't much resemble the original. Which is erroneously called "mutation". But I think it would take a lot. Otherwise, if you can build up a starter from a low viability sample, I call that successful storage.

 

[JDFlow]

Keep its posted

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Will do. Pitched into 5 gallons of 1.060 wort on Monday. Good healthy looking krausen today.

Come to think about it I have a vacuum sealer. I should vacuum seal my jars for storage. No more worry of contamination.

 

[JDFlow]

....it's still fermenting. Really, Really slowly. Checked it on tuesday it was down to 1.046. Today it's at 1.038. The airlock is still bubbling (I know) and yeast are lazily swimming around in there. So weird, two weeks and it's still going. Samples tasted good though. Sweet, but good.

 

[NicoleBrewer]

Glad I found this post because I have yeast in my fridge from September and am tempted to use it. Can't wait to see how yours turns out


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[JDFlow]

It's down to 1.018. There's a lot of yeast still in suspension and it tastes like grapefruit juice. I can't tell if it's the yeast or all the Apollo late hops.

 

[Chops1867]

I am aging a cream ale right now that I fermented with Nottingham that "expired" in 2009.


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[catdaddy66]

Glad I found this post because I have yeast in my fridge from September and am tempted to use it. Can't wait to see how yours turns out


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I feel you. Just woke up some napping yeasties from last July! I've let them warm up for 30 hours then dumped them in about .75L of wort at about 1.030. This has been left to work for another 30 hours or so. Will check tonight and see how they are doing before pitching into my 5.5 gallon sMasH of MO and Columbus.



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[william_shakes_beer]

I juat did the same thing, but no krausen. Ended up buying new yeast.