anyone ever get a dud?

[stevecaaster]

anyone ever get a dud white labs vial? the experation date says july, i made a 1 liter starter with it , its been on the stir plate for like 9 hours with out a bubble, theres negative pressure in the airlock, no krausen, no bubbles anywhere, just a flat lifeless liter of starter not my fault, HAD to have been the starter, either got messed up at the lab or on its way to the fridge at LHBS

9 hours is way long for NOTHING to happen, in my experience... i have made about a dozen of these things and this has never happened before, although white labs usually are a slower start than wyeast...

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've used WL vials that have been expired 2 years without any problems to note.

 

[stevecaaster]

maybe this thing baked on a truck for a week? its so wierd, im coming up on 10 hours here its flat as a pancake

 

[Brett0424]

It's possible you got a dud I have seen definite duds before but 9 hours really isn't long enough to tell. Yes it would ideally be going in that time but may not always. Also, did you let it warm up and mix with the nutrient before pitching? If you don't then sure it won't take off as fast as wyeast, which you smack in order to mix yeast with nutrient. If you didn't do this then you could have even shocked the yeast with the temperature difference. Oh and White Labs yeast doesn't have an expiration date on it. It has a date that you should use it by, and should say on it that it is still good after that date. You just want to make a starter with it, which you did.

 

[Desert_Sky]

only when I order liquid yeast in the middle of summer. My LHBS is pretty good about rotating older yeast out first.

 

[david_42]

Just once. A definite case of the vial getting too hot.

 

[raceskier]

I've had 2 duds. One WL, the other a Wyeast. Both were last summer. My LHBS gets their shipments off the same hot UPS trucks as everyone else. I was patient, letting them spin for day with no activity, before sampling the wort, which was still sweet. It's one of the reasons I've started my own yeast bank on slants.