3 vials of wlp028 - 12 days expired - starter?

At the LHBS today I needed WLP028 (edinburgh) for a smoked scottish 80/- I'm brewing this weekend. He had 3 vials left. All were dated best by 5/14/2011 (today is 5/26/11).

He told me he wouldn't sell them, but he would GIVE ALL 3 to me for free. Woo freaking hoo. Almost $24 in free yeast. Awesome

I have little concerns with the yeast being only 12 days expired. If I had 1 vial of it, I would definitely do a starter even if it was in code. However with 3 vials of the yeast, should I bother with a starter?

My concerns with doing a starter is overpitching. 3 vials into a starter into a 1.055 beer could be a bit much.

So should I just pitch all 3, or should I make a starter out of all 3 for confirmation they are still viable?

thanks for the input everyone.

I would definitely use them, I can't decide if I would make a starter or not... I would say if you have time that its not going to hurt... I would also look at the decay rate to figure out a number of cells that you can expect from 3 vials...

The guys at my LHBS only use 1 vial of expired yeast (since they can't sell it) and never make starters for their 5 gal batches. They win awards with their beer. If I were you I'd just pitch all 3 and not worry.

I just used 2 vials of 2 month past date 007 with no problems, Did make a 1ltr starter

For clarification, I definitely will be using them. That's no concern for me.

The concern is whether with 3 vials I need to bother with a starter.

rosier9 said:

I would also look at the decay rate to figure out a number of cells that you can expect from 3 vials...

Click to expand...

Great idea. I just used the mr.malty pitching rate calculator, and with no starter, a 1.055 wort, and a production date of 1/14/11 (4 months prior to best by date), the calculator says I will need 20.1 vials...LOL ouch.

Does that even sound remotely possible?
Now I'm thinking maybe a starter isn't a bad thing.....uggh. Any other thoughts.

Yeah. Make a 1L starter and don't worry about it. 1.055 isn't too bad.

B

Well I ended up making the starter. I had a huge layer of yeast in the growler when I went to pitch it. Only 5 or 6 hours until visible signs of fermentation. By next morning it was a blizzard in there.

1/2 cup of DME 4 pints of water..24 hours...good to go..