Bad Washed Yeast?

I had a quart jar with some washed 1098 yeast in it from the beginning of Aug, I was going to use in a yeast starter, but when I opened it it smelled faintly of vinegar and had a weird gray layer on top of the yeast on the bottom.

Anyone experienced this? Was I right to just dump it down the drain?

You were right to dump it. That yeast was dead. About the greatest length of time that you can keep washed yeast, and it still being really viable is a month. After 2 weeks of being washed it loses about 50% of it's viability.

Really? Reading a lot of the threads on here, people have said they had success with yeast kept for a year!

But yeah, something definitely wasn't right!

Weirder things have happened.

shotputman said:

I had a quart jar with some washed 1098 yeast in it from the beginning of Aug, I was going to use in a yeast starter, but when I opened it it smelled faintly of vinegar and had a weird gray layer on top of the yeast on the bottom.

Click to expand...

Bad sanitizing of water/jar/hands and anything else that may have come into contact. Really no need to rinse the yeast slurry and its just another chance to infect it.

DrawTap88 said:

About the greatest length of time that you can keep washed yeast, and it still being really viable is a month.

Click to expand...

Many people who don't rinse have saved yeast for months without any problems (myself incl.)

A peek into my fridge shows 2 jars from sept -oct just waiting to be used.

I'm with the rest here...sounds like an issue with the original washing, not age.

I've used yeast way (WAY) older than that and had great success...both whack pack and washed.

Houblon said:

Bad sanitizing of water/jar/hands and anything else that may have come into contact. Really no need to rinse the yeast slurry and its just another chance to infect it.



Many people who don't rinse have saved yeast for months without any problems (myself incl.)

A peek into my fridge shows 2 jars from sept -oct just waiting to be used.

Click to expand...

This! :rockin:

So do ya'll just clean/sanitize jars and dump your slurry right in?

It is never wrong to throw out something that you suspect is infected or bad if it is easily replaceable. The only way to know for sure is to try it in a batch or culture it. For the most part it isn't worth it. I've been washing some Notty, not because of cost, but I have some that I know is good and I don't want to risk NEW. Oh the irony..

vinegar? sounds like acetobacter