6 month old washed yeast any good?

I have some wlp500 that I washed back in late December 14' is it still any good? I used it for a belgian IPA and was thinking about rebrewing it soon but didn't know if the yeast was still viable. Been in my cold fridge the whole time after washing.

Stinky? Moldy?

Many of the cells are dead, but with a starter, you are good to go.

d3track said:

Stinky? Moldy?

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Don't know but looks fine in the jar. There is a small hop layer on top that looks a little grey but the yeast itself looks clean.

If it looks good and smells good, start with a 1 liter 1.010 step one starter.

You can harvest yeast from a bottle of unknown date and storage conditions. We overthink yeast viability!

flars said:

If it looks good and smells good, start with a 1 liter 1.010 step one starter.

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Cool I guess I could just make a starter even for no beer to dump it in but just to revive it and clean it up a little huh. Bring it back to life so to speak.

That's what I do with older yeast. Hardest part is keeping good notes.

I just revived 1 year old washed yeast, make a starter

Great and thanks for all the replies. Looks like I'll just make a starter here just to revive it a little and go from there. Don't know why I never thought of that until now. Lol.

What's is a reasonable rule of thumb for cell count with something like this? How can you predict how many cells will be in the starter as you step it up?

NeoBrew said:

What's is a reasonable rule of thumb for cell count with something like this? How can you predict how many cells will be in the starter as you step it up?

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I personally have no idea but there's a thread here that's titled simple way to wash yeast where the op posts studies on amount of yeast per ml using the ball type jars. I typically after washing and decanting get about 1/4" of yeast in a pint size jar so when I do starters I typically use two jars for a batch of beer at a 1.060-1.065 OG beer. I also use the Brewers friend or mr malty calculators to figure out starter size and step up additions.

I once made a starter with some 4-5 month old yeast (around 50-60mL compacted yeast) and it was off within 12 hours. Ive noticed some smackpacks that are < than a month old doing take off that fast in the same conditions.