Wyeast arrived warm.. should I bother?

So after two failed Wyeasts from my LHBS I decided to order some online from a place that's only one shipping day away. I paid an extra 99 cents for an "ice pack" thinking it would be one of those "blue ice" packs and that should keep it nice and cool for the day it's in transit.

Well my stuff arrived today and the "ice pack" is literally just a sealed plastic bag, smaller then a sandwich bag, full of room temperature water that I'm sure was at one time, ice. This make-shift baggy was placed in a larger plastic bag with the Wyeast and then put in the box with the other items I ordered. Just guessing I'd wager that it only stayed remotely cold for about 3-4 hours. So for a good solid 24 hours my Wyeast was at room temp.

Should I bother with making a starter with it? Should I make a back up starter with some dry yeast from my LHBS? I'm brewing on Sunday.

Make a starter, it should be fine.

Of course you should make a starter with it, that's the only way to insure a yeast viability...why would you even need to ask? Did you not make starters with the other two packets, you think "failed?"

Revvy said:

Of course you should make a starter with it, that's the only way to insure a yeast viability...why would you even need to ask? Did you not make starters with the other two packets, you think "failed?"

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Yes, and my last starter was spot on (temp, etc) and it still failed. They only carry 3 brands of Wyeast and they are all dated January.

Someone on my previous thread suggested mail order from a vendor close by.

I was just wondering if it's worth wasting a yeast starter kit on or not. It was a good 24 hours at room temp and I have no idea how hot it was in Texas yesterday, but it was lower 60's here.

It will be fine. Make a starter. Give it a little time to get going.

By failed, I assume you mean fermentation never started? How long did you let the starters sit? Did you user fermcap when boiling the starter? I recently did a starter with a few drops of fermcap while boiling and the fermentation never developed a krausen (but when I let the stir plate stop, I could see it was fermenting) I was concerned the yeast was dead until I saw that.

That yeast should be fine in temps up into the 80's. And Wyeast should be good for at least 6 months after the production date.

GreenDragon said:

I paid an extra 99 cents for an "ice pack" thinking it would be one of those "blue ice" packs and that should keep it nice and cool for the day it's in transit.

Well my stuff arrived today and the "ice pack" is literally just a sealed plastic bag, smaller then a sandwich bag, full of room temperature water that I'm sure was at one time, ice.

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A plastic bag with ice... yikes. That's pretty bad.

it'll be fine. i ordered pacman from AHS a couple of weeks ago and it shipped via their free shipping. took like 5 days to arrive at my house (in Flordida even) and was warm.
I smacked the pack, made a starter, and worked fine. lots of krausen. split the starter batch. poured half in a batch of IPA, and stepped up the other half again. Got more activity and lots of beautiful yeast. The IPA took off about 12-18 hours after pitching and had to use a blowoff tube.

bmsteele said:

A plastic bag with ice... yikes. That's pretty bad.

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That's not much different than what White Labs ships their yeast to the homebrew stores with - small, sealed plastic bags filled with a white gel-like material that melts within a few hours of being at room temperature or above. White Labs puts several of these inside a styrofoam box along with the yeast, which slows heating up the contents. Without insulation, they don't last very long at all.

My yeast usually arrives warm (living in Phoenix), and I've never had a problem.

GreenDragon said:

Yes, and my last starter was spot on (temp, etc) and it still failed. They only carry 3 brands of Wyeast and they are all dated January.

Someone on my previous thread suggested mail order from a vendor close by.

I was just wondering if it's worth wasting a yeast starter kit on or not. It was a good 24 hours at room temp and I have no idea how hot it was in Texas yesterday, but it was lower 60's here.

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You must have something else going on if you cant get a starter going from 2 month old packs. What do you mean by "they failed"? There are people on here that purposefully buy old yeast at discounts because of the ability to grow up many viable cells from only a few when exposed to a properly made starter. For a starter to fail, I would think that all of the cells would have to be toast and that you would have a good case for a refund. But that seems hard to believe.
Also, I'm more inclined to buy liquid yeast from my LHBS just because of the fact that you don't know how that pack is going to be treated in transit to your house when purchased from an online source. But in your case, this is the perfect reason why a starter should be made.....because of the unknown.

Also, OP, the yeast need to get well into the 90+ degree range to die. During mid-summer, that's definitely something to keep in mind, but it's rare that the yeast will be completely dead. Usually there are always some cells left alive that can be built up using stepped-up starters. It just takes several days to a week.

I am looking forward to spending two weeks building a starter. I am hoping it will help me tolerate the wait to get my primary open for the next batch.

GreenDragon said:

Someone on my previous thread suggested mail order from a vendor close by.

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I would order from Austin or Northern. I'm in NY and they have always packed the yeast perfectly with the ice pack. Never a problem.