How long is my yeast starter good fir

About 2 weeks ago I had planned a brewday and built up a starter with white labs hefeweizen ale yeast, but wasn't able to brew that day, and actually still haven't had a chance so my yeast been in the fridge since then. I will be brewing this weekend, and I'm not sure if I can just pitch the yeast as it is, should I reactivate the starter, or should I not even use it at all?

Drain off most of the starter wort that is still in there and bring it up to room temp. Then make a new batch of starter wort. Heffe yeast doesn't age as well as the others so you'll want to revive it before you pitch.

I suggest reactivating it. Probably could decant and pitch as is, but you got time to grow more.

I recall Jimal stating on a Brew Strong episode that 1-2 weeks should be ok. He would decant the "beer" off the top of the starter and add 5 of 6 oz of fresh wort to "wake it up" a few hour before pitching.

bad67z said:

I recall Jimal stating on a Brew Strong episode that 1-2 weeks should be ok. He would decant the "beer" off the top of the starter and add 5 of 6 oz of fresh wort to "wake it up" a few hour before pitching.

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So for future reference, if this happens again some day, would it be ok to use the yeast starter after 3 or 4 weeks, or is 1 -2 weeks the limit?

I took my yeast out of the fridge this morning and it started fermenting again on its own, I guess it wasn't completely finished. I think I'm just gonna pitch it as is. Any thoughts?

sorefingers23 said:

I took my yeast out of the fridge this morning and it started fermenting again on its own, I guess it wasn't completely finished. I think I'm just gonna pitch it as is. Any thoughts?

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If you didnt stir it up already, I'd decante and pitch the slurry. My 2 cents....

I've kept starters for over a month without any problems. I recently kept a Sweet Mead start on a stir plate for 2 months and used it on multiple batches with no problems. Try to feed it with wort every so often. I've been lazy in the past and just dumped in a tablespoon of DME and it worked fine. Technically you should boil it to sanitize it, but I've never had any problems.