Originally Posted by Golddiggie

For a slurry, I would just make a starter (first step of a 2 or 3 step program) and make sure there's at least a decent amount of good cells in there. IME, older yeast (3+ months old) can/will take longer to get going (even in starters, on stirplates). After that first step, though, they act like fresh yeast (mostly because there's a good population of fresh yeast in there now).

Even with the underestimating done by the sites, you're not going to over-pitch the yeast you need. Considering how many cells you'll have post fermentation at least.

I've used 10+ month old vials/packages of yeast before. I just did a 2 or 3 step starter for them. I have some that's over a year old now, that I plan to use with starters. I figure that the first step will tell me if they're ok to use or not. If I get nothing from them after about three days (or 72 hours), I'll probably give them until the following morning to show sign. If nothing, then I'll just toss the small starter and get fresh yeast. Not much of an issue for me.

Originally Posted by hope2perc

I want to use yeast that's about 10 months old and "washed" per the sticky. Is there a certain smell that says it's no good? Silly question, I know; but I thought somewhere in that long sticky, weird smells were mentioned. I'm not sure what to "look" for. I think it's fine, but I'm looking for more info before I use it.