Dry yeast storage

I bought a couple of dozen packages of dry yeast.

Can I store these in the freezer or should I only use the fridge?

Dry yeast can be frozen. I would suggest putting it in a ziploc bag or other air-tight container.

The yeast packs are freeze dried to remove the moister and are nitrogen flushed and are sealed from exposure to the outside air. Why then should dry yeast be stored in the fridge or freezer? I can understand why you would want to do this with liquid yeast.


...just wondering?

Thx..

Uhm....go eat some beef jerky maybe two packets. Salvage the silica packets and put them with the dry yeast in ziploc bag and put in freezer. The silica helps remove moisture, I have also heard of people dropping their cell phones into water and not turning it on (it will fry right away) drying off the phone and doing the same ziploc/silica packets. 3 days laters the silica removes all the moisture from inside. Never tried it but sounds like a good storage tool for keeping your yeast dry.

robertbartsch said:

I bought a couple of dozen packages of dry yeast.

Can I store these in the freezer or should I only use the fridge?

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I do neither. I keep mine in a plastic container in my closet. Yeast (S-04, S-05, and S-23) works fine.

Fleishmann's dry bread yeast works fine and is never stored anywhere but on a shelf.

robertbartsch said:

Why then should dry yeast be stored in the fridge or freezer? I can understand why you would want to do this with liquid yeast.

Click to expand...

Because dry yeast (like liquid yeast) is (even after drying/packaging) a living organism, so the cooler fridge temperatures will help slow the yeast's metabolism to help keep it viable for longer. Drying yeast helps it survive storage for longer, but without food/oxygen/etc it's still slowly dying, the same as liquid yeast, just a bit more slowly.

I believe the 'use by' date on yeast packs is 1 or 2 years after the production date, and that's assuming it's stored at below ~20C, if you store it in the fridge more yeast in the pack will remain viable for longer. More viable yeast in the pack means better pitching rates, and generally better beer, the packs are tiny, so why not keep your yeast in the fridge and look after them as best you can?

I just keep mine in the fridge. See no reason to add silicon packs or what not since they are supposedly sealed off from moisture in the 1st place.

..thats true, but you can also store dry yeast packets and home made jerky in the same ziploc bag if you silica packets....yeah that sounds about right