My yeast froze in shipping..

I bought ingredients to do a LME hefeweizen from austin homebrew, including liquid yeast which was frozen upon arrival... from what I have read here, that yeast is most likely toast. I don't have the yeast in front of me, but I think it was a type of Wyeast Weizen...

Now, I will be getting a strain of ale yeast (derivitive of the Wyeast American Ale I believe) from a local microbrew for other batches... I know I am not giving much details, but would this microbrew yeast work with the hefe? Or would it be in my best interest to buy more weizen yeast?

Why not make a starter just to see?

+1, no reason not to make a starter with the yeast package that froze, most likely there are still some viable cells in there. Making a starter will not only prove there's still live yeast, but also increase the cell count to more than you would have had with a fresh new package.

Yeah, I will probably do a starter... How long should I let it go before determining one way or the other?

Doing my first starter tomorrow. From what I have read you should know within 24 hours.

undertow said:

Yeah, I will probably do a starter... How long should I let it go before determining one way or the other?

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Give it 24-48 hours, don't forget to shake/swirl it as often a possible, or if you have a stir plate it's even better.

Your yeast will be fine. When people develope their yeast bank, aren't they frozen? In the short term it will be fine. I would always use a starter to build your count.

Dog House Brew said:

Your yeast will be fine. When people develope their yeast bank, aren't they frozen? In the short term it will be fine. I would always use a starter to build your count.

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People use glycerin to prevent cell damage when freezing yeast. I'm guessing it's not a standard ingredient in liquid yeast packages.

I got a pack that was completely frozen last week. I thawed it and smacked it and it was completely swelled withing 3 hours. I made a starter and pitched it into my wort and it fermented out in 3 days at 56F. My only recommendation would be to make your starter slightly larger than you normally would, because freezing like that will reduce the viability of the yeast.

a hefe depends a lot on the yeast so by using an ale yeast you won't get a hefe

Chris White (White Labs) says there is only a 10% loss of yeast cells once frozen. The only problem is you don't know how many times it was thawed and re-froze.

I'd be interested to hear how this goes. I opened my fridge last night to add some yeast and found half of the slants I had in there were frozen. I've only been culturing my own yeast bank for a few months but I have WLP002, 300, 800, 0013, 005 and 0023 and it would be a shame to lose them.

/Phil.

chefchris said:

Chris White (White Labs) says there is only a 10% loss of yeast cells once frozen. The only problem is you don't know how many times it was thawed and re-froze.

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+1 on this from chris

On the other end of the spectrum...

I live in New Orleans. Following hurricane Katrina, the local beer store effectively gave away the white labs yeast that had sat moldering in an unpowered refrigerator in the 98 degree heat (inside the closed up store it could well have been 110-120 degrees) for well over a month. It took a couple of days to get going, but it bounces back and made a great beer.

The lesson is, yeast is pretty hardy stuff.

Well I have the starter going... This eveining I will see if there is any CO2. I have honestly never done a starter before, but that was quite easy (assuming it works).

Basically it was VERY cold last week, and ups delivered to the doorstep. When the box was opened, it was essentially a block of ice in a test tube.

A starter will answer your questions. Worst case you are out a little time and 4 oz of DME. Trash it and you are definitely out the $6 for the yeast right off the bat.

Well, here is an update: Starter was gassing slowly... I decided to pitch. It slowly fermented for a week or so. (This was the complete opposite reaction to another batch using the yeast I obtained from the local microbrewery).

I will be checking the gravity when I rack into the secondary, but the once frozen yeast seems to have worked just fine.