Belgium Pale Ale yeast not looking good, need help...

I made a 1 liter starter for a WLP550, Belgium Pale Ale yeast. I got the yeast on sale for $2.00 because it is 2 months past the good date. I thought what the heck, let's try BPA. Well, the beer is chilled and being aerated right now and the starter does not look good. I've made about a dozen starters and all had more activity (no signs of krausen in this one).

I'm going to pitch the starter and give it 24 hours. My question is, what should I pitch if it doesn't take off? I have a S-04, a S-05, and Notty. I'm leaning to the S-04.

did the starter ferment at all? if so the brew will take off just take gravity readings to verify either way. if your not satisfied with the fermentation add more of the same yeast you made the starter with.

At 7:00 am this morning I had some activity in the blow-off. Needless to say it was a relief. At noon today, the thing was bubbling away furiously, fermentation is fully underway.

I was really relieved as I was worrying about the viability of the yeast, being two months past date. I have read posts here of people using 1 year old tubes from White Labs and making starters that just took off, so of course I thought I could do it.

I've made several yeast starters now and most have noticeable activity but this one just did seem so vigorous. Not having a stir plate, I have to shake mine occasionally and I generally see a lot of CO2 release in my starters. I have even had them overflow in the 1L flask if shaken too hard. I am assuming the final product will be okay. I will probably avoid the sale rack for old yeast, it's not worth the worry once a beer is made.

TipsyDragon said:

did the starter ferment at all?

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Can you really tell this? I usually see bubbles and a thin krausen in my starters, this simply looked brown and still. I never thought of checking the gravity of the starter, is something that is done regularly to check the starter? I guess I would wonder about infection doing this.

Rubberband said:

Can you really tell this? I usually see bubbles and a thin krausen in my starters, this simply looked brown and still. I never thought of checking the gravity of the starter, is something that is done regularly to check the starter? I guess I would wonder about infection doing this.

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if your not sure the starter is fermenting checking the gravity is the best way to find out. as long as you sanitize everything properly the risk of infection is minimal.