Stirring up a White Labs vial

I've got a vial of still viable White Labs WLP023 (burton ale), and it's extremely stuck to the bottom of the vial. No amount of ridiculous shaking has gotten it to come up off the bottom of the vial.


Do I buy a new vial, or as I'm about to pitch to my starter, should I just use a stick (like a steel kabab stick in starsan) to mix it up?

Would boiling the object to mix it up be a better idea than starsan to try and avoid introducing yeast-killer into concentrated yeast?

I'd pour out as much as possible, then add a small amount of your wort, cover and shake. It might be too full to get enough shaking action inside it now.

Yeah, first try just pouring a little of the liquid out of the vial. Less liquid means it's easier to shake and get it agitated. If that doesn't work I'd just sanitize a metal skewer or something like you said with starsan and give it a quick poke or two to loosen it up. The trace amounts of sanitizer on the skewer wouldn't be enough to hurt the yeast.

But dumping some of the liquid out and then shaking should do the trick.

I ran into the same problem with a vial of burton ale a couple of months ago. It took persistence to finally get it loose. I did the "ridiculous amount of shaking" thing. I also had to smack it against my hand a few times, roll it around and shake from every conceivable angle. It took about 5 min to finally get the yeast free from the sides of the vial.

It must be a good flocculator. After all of that, it left a solid, compact yeast cake in my English IPA.

As long as you haven't gone well past the "Best By" date, I say just keep shaking until you get the majority of the yeast free.

BEWARE - Make sure you vent the vial by opening slowly, a bit at a time to release the CO2 after you're done shaking. Unless a yeast facial is what you're going for.

winvarin said:

BEWARE - Make sure you vent the vial by opening slowly, a bit at a time to release the CO2 after you're done shaking. Unless a yeast facial is what you're going for.

Click to expand...

Oh yes, I know. I discovered this with a vial of 004.

"BEWARE - Make sure you vent the vial by opening slowly, a bit at a time to release the CO2 after you're done shaking. Unless a yeast facial is what you're going for.[/QUOTE]"

Wish I found this post previous to my troubles w/ the WLP515 ( Antwerp Ale)
Shook the hell out of it and bang !!!!....