Strange-looking yeast in vial

Hey all. I just got a vial of WLP400 Belgian Wit. It has a strange appearance - there are two distinct solid layers under the liquid. The top is dark tan, the bottom is creamy white - as I would expect yeast to be. I'd post a picture, but it got mixed up in transport here. It's settling again now, so maybe soon.

Is this normal for this strain of yeast? I don't see how monocultures could form distinct layers like that. Maybe I got some dregs of whatever liquid they put in the vials?

Normal. Dead yeast and live yeast.

It's kind of what I thought, but I've never seen close to that much...and this was a new vial, expires in April '11....

suppose it's been improperly handled? Or is this maybe just a short-lived yeast?

Could have been kept warm at some point, could just be the strain, etc. etc.


The important thing is you can see there is clearly plenty of healthy yeast so your vial is good. Make a starter and pitch away.

alright, thanks.

For future reference, or if someone else has this problem, here's what the vial looked like:


And I'll edit this post about how well the starter went.

Edit: 12 hours later, the starter had taken off like a rocket. This yeast drove itself right out of the starter vessel; a puddle of thick brown goo surrounded it. I had to split it into two containers.

So, no problems there.

Skyforger said:

For future reference, or if someone else has this problem, here's what the vial looked like:
http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee395/jodah52/Yeastvial.jpg

And I'll edit this post about how well the starter went.

Click to expand...

Weird. That seems like an awfully big contrast for what should be a fresh vial. Make a starter and it should be fine, but I'd send an email to White Labs with that picture included just to let them know and ask them if that's a common problem with that strain or something. You might even get some free yeast out of it.