Thawing frozen bread yeast

[SkeletorMob]

Hello I tried a recipe inspired by Joe's recently.
I used bread yeast available to me called Bob's Mill and when I was finished I put the bag in a mason jar in the freezer. Should I thaw in the open air or fridge first then open air. From what I read I decided I should freeze for keep but not I'm worried about condensation getting the yeast wet as I thaw. Did I already mess up storage? At least it would be a cheap mistake... thanks in advance!

 

[loveofrose]

You should toss it in the trash and buy more yeast. Yeast require some TLC in order to remain viable after freezing. See here if you are curious:
https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Yeast-bank/

 

[SeraW]

Hello I tried a recipe inspired by Joe's recently.
I used bread yeast available to me called Bob's Mill and when I was finished I put the bag in a mason jar in the freezer. Should I thaw in the open air or fridge first then open air. From what I read I decided I should freeze for keep but not I'm worried about condensation getting the yeast wet as I thaw. Did I already mess up storage? At least it would be a cheap mistake... thanks in advance!

Never had a problem with dry yeast being frozen. Any other form though and I'd be wary of loss of viability unless carefully prepared.

 

[AkTom]

I get yeast at Costco. It stays good in the freezer. I just started 2 1gal bottles of mead yesterday. They are bubbling nicely today. I use 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 tablespoon table sugar, and about a cup of warm water. Warm as in 100* more or less. I have 2 meads that are about 45 days old, just racked into secondary. The cranberry is 10% and tastes very good already. The Meadow Foam is 14%. That flavor needs time to do something. Kind of blah right now.
Cheers

 

[SkeletorMob]

You should toss it in the trash and buy more yeast. Yeast require some TLC in order to remain viable after freezing. See here if you are curious:
https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Yeast-bank/

Thank you sir for the reference link!!

 

[SkeletorMob]

I get yeast at Costco. It stays good in the freezer. I just started 2 1gal bottles of mead yesterday. They are bubbling nicely today. I use 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 tablespoon table sugar, and about a cup of warm water. Warm as in 100* more or less. I have 2 meads that are about 45 days old, just racked into secondary. The cranberry is 10% and tastes very good already. The Meadow Foam is 14%. That flavor needs time to do something. Kind of blah right now.
Cheers

Hey thanks Tom, I appreciate hearing your experience with that!!

 

[loveofrose]

Actually, dry yeast will fare well frozen. I thought you meant the yeast were in liquid form. My bad!

 

[SkeletorMob]

Actually, dry yeast will fare well frozen. I thought you meant the yeast were in liquid form. My bad!

That doesn't take away from the excellence of the advice! Your linked post will help me greatly with my future goals, it corresponds perfect with my compleat mead maker and brew like a viking book. I feel with this forum is have achieved a power trio force of knowledge!!!

 

[fuelish]

Don't think I'd have a problem with freezing individual yeast packets, am unsure from OP if they bought quantity of bread yeast and poured "loose" yeast into a mason jar and froze it. If that's the case, I'd keep it around to boil and add as a nutrient, and buy fresh yeast in indie packets...I mean, it's like $1 a pack for most wine yeasts at my LHBS...worth it to me, especially compared to the cost of honey. Yeast is pretty hardy stuff, I just like to keep it sealed in it's original packaging until time of use

 

[SkeletorMob]

Don't think I'd have a problem with freezing individual yeast packets, am unsure from OP if they bought quantity of bread yeast and poured "loose" yeast into a mason jar and froze it. If that's the case, I'd keep it around to boil and add as a nutrient, and buy fresh yeast in indie packets...I mean, it's like $1 a pack for most wine yeasts at my LHBS...worth it to me, especially compared to the cost of honey. Yeast is pretty hardy stuff, I just like to keep it sealed in it's original packaging until time of use

Well it was a large packet of Bread yeast, not wine or ale yeasts. So after I used the small amount for the recipe I was stuck with a large open package, but as we mentioned still very cheap for new yeast. I did leave it inside the open package and placed that in the mason jar! Thanks for sharing your advice here!! I will be using it based on confidence reading the above experiences but will be wary of a slow ferment and have a new package handy in such case! Still in the first few months of homebrewing so I have plenty of time to make a few mistakes to learn from, and hopefully accurately applying wisdom for avoid mistakes in the future!