Planned to do a California Common this weekend. Friday we went to DBQ for dinner and I checked to see if I needed anything from the LHBS before I went. But he closes at 6pm, it's 5:15pm, it's a 30-minute drive, so I have to hurry.
I checked my hops (yes, need some Northern Brewer, get some), checked the yeast (expiration Nov 18), I have all the grains I need, so other than the hops, I'm good to go.
The yeast is a pack of Wyeast 2112. Friday night I decided to use up a can of canned starter wort (Propper), so I made up a starter. I don't like how that starter smells, so I figured I'd decant off the spent wort and pitch the yeast.
I oxygenated the starter wort as I always do, pitched it, and set it on the stir plate. Almost no observable action, maybe a few bubbles at the edge, but it sure was strange. After 21 hours on the plate, I stuck the flask in the fridge.
Well, this morning it's clear what's going on. I have a bad starter (see pic). Lots of junk on the bottom with a layer of what appears to be decent yeast on that. I look at the Wyeast pack and realize: I misread the date. The date OF MANUFACTURE is November 18, 2018, so I'm more than 10 months out. No wonder.
Fortunately, I also had a pack of White Labs 810, which I pitched after warming it. I left the wort at 75 degrees, and I'll start dropping it down to my normal ferm temp of 64 after 8 or so hours--hoping the wort acts like a big starter.
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Here's the funny thing: on the White Labs tubes, the date is the Best By date. On the Wyeast packs, the date is the date of manufacture.
Now, there's no excusing the fact that I misread a 2018 date as a 2019 date. In my defense, and it's not much of one, I was in a hurry to get to the store before he closed at 6pm. But it also was a confusion of the approach each yeast manufacturer uses--manufacturing date versus best-by date.
So beware.
I checked my hops (yes, need some Northern Brewer, get some), checked the yeast (expiration Nov 18), I have all the grains I need, so other than the hops, I'm good to go.
The yeast is a pack of Wyeast 2112. Friday night I decided to use up a can of canned starter wort (Propper), so I made up a starter. I don't like how that starter smells, so I figured I'd decant off the spent wort and pitch the yeast.
I oxygenated the starter wort as I always do, pitched it, and set it on the stir plate. Almost no observable action, maybe a few bubbles at the edge, but it sure was strange. After 21 hours on the plate, I stuck the flask in the fridge.
Well, this morning it's clear what's going on. I have a bad starter (see pic). Lots of junk on the bottom with a layer of what appears to be decent yeast on that. I look at the Wyeast pack and realize: I misread the date. The date OF MANUFACTURE is November 18, 2018, so I'm more than 10 months out. No wonder.
Fortunately, I also had a pack of White Labs 810, which I pitched after warming it. I left the wort at 75 degrees, and I'll start dropping it down to my normal ferm temp of 64 after 8 or so hours--hoping the wort acts like a big starter.
**************
Here's the funny thing: on the White Labs tubes, the date is the Best By date. On the Wyeast packs, the date is the date of manufacture.
Now, there's no excusing the fact that I misread a 2018 date as a 2019 date. In my defense, and it's not much of one, I was in a hurry to get to the store before he closed at 6pm. But it also was a confusion of the approach each yeast manufacturer uses--manufacturing date versus best-by date.
So beware.