What do YOU do when you get a bad vial of yeast?

Made a starter on Wednesday using White Labs WLP029 Kolsch yeast. 3 days passed and no change in gravity, so unfortunately had to pitch some notty into my supposed to be Munich Helles.

What's done is done, but I cannot get over wasting $8 on a vial of dead yeast. Just curious what you all have done in the past.

Never had it happen. I am making a starter today for some WL 013 that I harvested in January. I don't expect any problems. What happened? How did you care for the yeast before it was pitched?

Got it from my LHBS, went in fridge as soon as I got home. Made a starter next day... Method: pulled yeast from fridge ~2 hrs prior to making starter, 1000ml water + 3/4 cup light dme, boiled 30 min, cooled, oxygenated, pitched (when I unscrewed the cap didn't get a 'fizz' like usual) sat in 70* room temp for three days with constant swirling.

I'm pretty confident in my method, not much that can really go wrong...

Take the empty vial back to the LHBS. They'll happily replace it. Yeast is a living organism. These things happen.

Chad

Yeah, LHBS should happily replace it. You did everything right. Maybe it got hot at some point before you got it.

quickerNu said:

Yeah, LHBS should happily replace it. You did everything right. Maybe it got hot at some point before you got it.

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I did that, he only happily suggested I buy another. Can't blame the guy really he must have a ton of overhead having a business in long island NY

JMD87 said:

I did that, he only happily suggested I buy another. Can't blame the guy really he must have a ton of overhead having a business in long island NY

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heh. This is why I keep plenty of dry yeast around... In fact, I'm becoming quite partial to it.

Wow. That's a fast way to lose a customer. I wouldn't go back. As I said, yeast is a living organism. There is going to be a certain number of bad vials/smack packs. Replacing them (for a customer in good standing) is part of the cost of doing business.

Chad

i dont know it has never happond to me before, there are hundreds of millons of yeast cells in there it would take alot to kill them all, and it would only take a few to get a starter going.... but then i would not have brewed the beer if the yeast starter was not ready

chad baring high heat the yeast will be good for a long time, the exp date on white labs is for pitching not for a starter i have use yeast that was 8 months past date and it made a starter just fine.. i allso have some yeast slants on agar in my cooler that are 3 years old and still good, its a numbers game with millions of cells , baring strealzation there is going to be a few alive

He sold you a bad product, and all he will do is tell you to buy more? I would tell him to shove it, and never set foot in that store again.

I had this problem. My bad yeast (a Wyeast Brit Ale) did start to ferment, but not very much and it made some horrible smells. I was sent a replacement by courier the next day when I rang up my LHBS about it.

ill drink a beer and toast a sad travesty..then go get a vial or smack pack that works

A good lhbs would offer some replacement. Even just replacing the pack of dry you had to use would be good business. I wouldn't stop shoping there over something like this, especial considering there likely are not many options. But I would think twice about it on things I can get elsewhere.

My lhbs is constantly out of 5lbs bags of marris and doesn't offer a discount on 5 1lbs bags (even though its only a dollar anyway). So I went to northcountrymalts and bought a 55lbs sack for less than 1/2 the price of the lhbs. Would probably just have stuck with the 5lbs bags to save space but I lost my loyalty to the lhbs.

Great customer service is always more profitable in the long run.

My LHBS refuses to sell Wyeast because according to them "50% don't swell". I think that is total BS, i've heard as high as 20% but personnally i've never had one not swell and i've used 50 or so. 50% my ass...I actually laughed when she told me that.