Yeast starter/expired yeast

I have a canned wine kit (http://www.wilko.com/wine-homebrew-kits/wilko-30-bottle-cabernet-sauvignon-wine/invt/0318378) that passed its best before date about a year ago but I've heard some people still brew them and as long as I can get the yeast to start it should be fine. Anyone have experience on this? Anything I should do differently? I'm planning to make a yeast starter but I dont have any yeast nutrient, would just warm sugar water work?

Thanks for any advice/opinions

as long as it gets going in a starter, youve basically got new healthy yeast

Id suggest making a small starter (maybe 500ml) first of 1.030-1.040 OG and step it up to get the right cell count

m00ps said:

as long as it gets going in a starter, youve basically got new healthy yeast

Id suggest making a small starter (maybe 500ml) first of 1.030-1.040 OG and step it up to get the right cell count

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Well I don't have a gravity reader any more but am sure theres a calculator online to work out how much sugar to get that, but would it be fine with just table sugar and water? And what temperature should I keep it at?

As for the dates, the only thing that matters is the yeast right? The juice should be fine 1 year after its best before date?

Yup, works fine if you can get a starter going. You may need multiple steps if it's really old, like m00ps sez, start small and work your way up. I got several yeast packs from my LHBS for free 'cuz they were past their date and they were going to throw them out. I've used a couple of them to build starters and they work just fine. A little difficult to determine the viability but if I get a nice thick pile when it settles out, I'm happy.

Ok well I made the starter 30 minutes ago, (added a squeeze of fresh orange + half a tea spoon of sugar to warm water) and the yeast is already dancing around and bubbling away So as long as the grape juice is still ok it should all be good, although I checked and it's actually 18 months expired, so we will see. Anyway will try and remember to post the results in a few weeks