Advise needed ASAP!

Today I was planning on brewing a saison but my Wyeast 3711 FR Saison froze in the refrigerator! I smacked the activator just to check and see if it was still good last night and absolutely nothing has happened so I'm pretty sure the freezing killed it. I went to the LHBS today to buy a new pack and they were out, in fact all they had was some Wyeast 2565 Kolsch for free because it is older than six months... I grabbed it anyways as I have my heart set on brewing today! My questions are:

1. Should I pitch the Kolsch yeast and assume it's probably still good even though it's old.

2. Should I pitch the Saison yeast and hope there are still some good cells left in there?

3. Should I pitch both the Kolsch and Saison yeasts and see what happens??

Are you super deadset on brewing today? Because I'd recommend making a starter for the Saison yeast... I'd be willing to bet at least some of the yeast are still alive in there and the only way to tell is with a starter.

Same goes for the Kolsch but for other reasons. It's older... but 6 months is definitely not too old. I say you scored some quality free yeast and you should just plan to brew again soon and use that.

Just go to Mr Malty Yeast Calculator and adjust the settings for your batch size, your batch OG, age of yeast, and what kind of starter (I'm assuming you'd be doing Simple Starter with Intermittent Shaking.) It will then give you the size starter you need. Then a couple days later you'll have two things: 1) Confirmation that your yeast is alive and well (aka "viable"), and 2) An appropriate amount of yeast for pitching. Most here on HBT recommend always making a starter for liquid yeasts.

Good luck

If you must brew today, why not pitch both? Otherwise, I'd pick another Belgian strain or get a fresh pack of saison yeast.

brew today, make starter today with saison yeast, pitch later. or wait to brew. best option, regardless, is not to pitch till you have enough yeast.

My work schedule only allows me to brew on Saturdays so I'm going to go ahead and brew today and pitch both of them. I think I might stop back by the LHBS after work on Monday and see if they have any more of the free expired Wyeast packs and I'll brew a simple Kolsch or something similar next weekend. Now that I've decided to use both, what temperature should I ferment this at? Should I keep lower in the Kolsch yeast range or go higher for the Saison yeast? Thanks!

Ooooo didn't think about that. Saison likes high temps.... Kolsch likes lower (or at least makes better beer at lower temps.) I'd say since the viability is likely higher on the Kolsch I'd shoot low-60's.

So I'll shoot for low 60's and hopefully the kolsch yeast will consume the probably mostly dead saison cells as extra nutrients to make up the old age of the kolsch and the fact that it was just smacked an hour ago and I don't have a starter... Does that make any sense??

I've been thinking... what if I just pitch the saison and wait a few days to see what happens?? Worst case scenario I end up pitching the kolsch, right?