drum2exist

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Hey guys. I am trowing together a quick recipe for a light summer beer and I cam across some White Labs London Ale yeast in the back of my fridge. I noticed hat the expiration date was for 3/18/2012. So my question is: Do I have to make a yeast starter? I don't have any extra DME on hand right now, so for the price of the DME I can just buy some new yeast. Have any f you guys used yeast that was a couple of weeks after its best by day without a starter. Thanks a lot!

chezteth

Recipes 

I normally use Wyeast but I have used it when it was older than 6 months old. I always suggest making a starter unless the OG of your beer is so low that it wouldn't require it. Check out the Mr. Malty pitching rater calculator for the proper starter size / amount of tubes for the beer you are making. http://www.mrmalty.com

janivar123

Recipes 

If you dont want to use a starter dry yeast is the easyest
You can probably culture that yeast back up in 6 months if you wish, but thats a little more work then a 2 step starter

If you freeze some leftover worth you can use it for yeast culturing and starters later

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simzy

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if you plan on using the single pack of dry yeast, you're probably going to under pitch your yeast. I'd buy another pack and pitch both of them.


for some reason I was under the impression you were using dry yeast. Liquid yeast would definitely need a starter.

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Calder

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You should be making a starter for liquid yeast no matter the age.

The yeast is fine, but needs a starter to ensure it is healthy.

Use some extract from your brew to make a starter. You can pitch it into the beer, with no loss of ingredients.

drum2exist

Recipes 

Thanks for all the help guys, I appreciate it. I am just throwing together a real quick wheat beer and I have very little time to do so with my current hectic schedule, so I will just be using a simple wheat LME. Can this be used the same as a DME? If so, around how much would you recommend? Thanks a lot!

Revvy

Recipes 

If you make a starter, then the age of a yeast isn't really an issue. When you make a starter, and grow it, you're replicating more yeast to make up for any loss. You're making new, fresh yeast.

Bobby M did a test on year old stored yeast here; http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/testing-limits-yeast-viability-126707/

And my LHBS cells outdated tubes and packs of yeast dirt cheap 2-3 dollars each and I usually grab a couple tubes of belgian or other interesting yeast when I am there and shove it in my fridge. and I have never had a problem with one of those tubes.

I usually make a starter but I once pitched a year old tube of Belgian High Gravity yeast directly into a 2.5 gallon batch of a Belgian Dark Strong, and after about 4 days it took off beautifully.
The purpose of a starter is to reproduce any viable cells in a batch of yeast....that;s how we can grow a starter form the dregs in a bottle of beer incrementally...and that beer may be months old.

Even if you have a few still living cells, you can grow them....That's how we can harvest a huge starter (incrementally) from the dregs in a bottle of some commercial beers. You take those few living cells and grow them into more.

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Aschecte

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Here's the simplest way I have found to use "expired" yeast. Find out the pkg date on the tube or pack and figure out when the yeast was harvested to the package. Next go to mr.malty website and enter the package harvest date into the yeast calculator and it will calculate the amount of viable yeast you have left. Next enter the Og of our wort and the type ie. ale or lager/hybrid and it will tell you your starter size needed by the age if your yeast.

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CPFITNESS

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I would probably buy the dme and make a starter even though yeast is the same price, then you will have some DME on hand to make starters in the future. You can also wash the yeast from this batch when your done as well.