Hey everyone. I had a question about Wyeast's yeast viability in the last few months. I've been homebrewing for 3 years now and I've been a big fan of Wyeast's smack packs. I love their selection and their products. When I started brewing with their yeast a few years ago, I hadn't heard about making a yeast starter yet I would pitch the yeast straight from the pack in late afternoon, and by midnight I would see active signs of fermentation.
In the last six months, it has all changed. I began doing starters yet my beers still didn't start as quickly as they did before. Last september, I used Wyeast 1968 for a couple of british beers. English strains are usually pretty vigorous and ferment quickly. All of them had sluggish starts sometimes going nearly 48 hours without active signs of fermentation and took weeks instead of days to finish. I tried starters, I tried without starters, it made no difference. At the time, I just thought I got a bad pack of yeast. But I recently bought a pack of German Ale 1007 to brew an Alt beer. The same thing is happening again with this pack. I looked at the date and saw that it was less than 3 weeks old so the pack was pretty fresh.
Let me just say my beers have been turning out great (actually better than ever) even with the slow starting fermentation so that's not the issue. But have there been any reports or other people with similar experiences where Wyeast smack pack yeast has been slower lately? Or am I just living in a time dilated frame of reference?
In the last six months, it has all changed. I began doing starters yet my beers still didn't start as quickly as they did before. Last september, I used Wyeast 1968 for a couple of british beers. English strains are usually pretty vigorous and ferment quickly. All of them had sluggish starts sometimes going nearly 48 hours without active signs of fermentation and took weeks instead of days to finish. I tried starters, I tried without starters, it made no difference. At the time, I just thought I got a bad pack of yeast. But I recently bought a pack of German Ale 1007 to brew an Alt beer. The same thing is happening again with this pack. I looked at the date and saw that it was less than 3 weeks old so the pack was pretty fresh.
Let me just say my beers have been turning out great (actually better than ever) even with the slow starting fermentation so that's not the issue. But have there been any reports or other people with similar experiences where Wyeast smack pack yeast has been slower lately? Or am I just living in a time dilated frame of reference?