Froze my Wyeast in the packet by accident!

It is winter and my fridge in the garage froze some of my yeast packs. I don't think this is going to ruin anything, but would like some confirmation from you guys.

They are now thawed. I don't know how long they were frozen.

Does anyone think this might have ruined them? I'm going to make starters with them so I won't ruin a batch of beer.

Thanks for the help.

Make a starter. It'll be fine.

If the yeast actually froze, it will die. You can try smacking the packs and seeing if they swell, and if they do then make a starter to increase the cell count.

When yeast freeze, the cells rupture when they thaw.

I agree, I had a wyeast pack freeze in shipping from an online HBS. I let it thaw, smacked it and let it sit out for a bit and it never really expanded. I made a 1qt starter to see if it came back to life. It had a little action in it, but never really took off on the fermentation. I was up against a time crunch and didn't trust what appeared to me as a weak starter. I got new yeast, pitched it and threw in the starter for good measure. Been 5 days in the primary now, started bubbling really well in first 24 hours, kicked off nicely.

For me it was better safe than sorry, a 45 min round trip to the LBHS and $6 for a new smackpack.

@ Yooper - I kind of thought that was the case. Damn it!!!

Thanks for the input guys. I really appreciate it.