1 Year Old Starter - Tastes Great! How about 100+ years.

So, I made a starter (out of two crappy Mr. Beer dry yeast packets) last April a few days before an upcoming planned "brew day". Well, that day came and went and I just go so busy with so many other things I kept thinking - I need to get that beer brewed.

Fast forward to earlier this month. I decided, if yeast can live in a bottle on the bottom of the ocean for 100 years and be re-vived (Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Vrak), then I'm going to perform my own experiment.

Well, I boiled some LME and introduced it to the growler that contained my year old yeast starter. Swished it around and put the airlock back on it (yes, I know another thing I shouldn't be doing but I haven't had any problems yet).

Within a few hours - activity had started. Within 8 hours it had krausen that was 2" tall on top. So I brewed and pitched it, and so far the beer tastes great! It's in secondary right now and the recipe is just stuff that I was trying to get rid of because it was just sitting around getting old.

So anyway, I thought I would share my findings and also report that maybe yeast is a lot stronger than a lot of people understand.

yeast is our friend

nice user name.
do you ride?

I wonder if the depth of the yeast cake in the growler effects the viability.

I just tried to make a starter off some yeast I missed in the back of the fridge 13 months old. No dice. I am leaving it alone to see if it comes around, but no apparent activity. I was not depending on it for a brew, I was just digging for a beer and found it.

fftopic: how do you think apfel wine with a belgian yeast would be..... I might have to start another thread. that was what I was planning on doing if this starter took off.

pnj - yes, still ride at the ripe old age of 39!