I washed some yeast in March - still good?

[rockout]

I ended up with 4 Mason jars of California Ale yeast from White Labs that I washed from one of my primaries. I've used 3 of them with no problems, great beers. Today I made a starter for my next IPA and opened the jar and it smelled a bit off. Did I wait too long to use this one?

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I ended up with 4 Mason jars of California Ale yeast from White Labs that I washed from one of my primaries. I've used 3 of them with no problems, great beers. Today I made a starter for my next IPA and opened the jar and it smelled a bit off. Did I wait too long to use this one?

only one way to find out.

 

[chumprock]

I did the same thing with the same yeast. I think it was at least 10 months until I used it and the beer came out fine.

It smelled a little weird before I pitched it, but none of that carried over into the final product.

 

[Revvy]

If you're stepping up a starter, then the age of a yeast isn't really an issue.

Bobby M did a test on year old stored yeast here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/testing-limits-yeast-viability-126707/

And my LHBS cells outdated tubes and packs of yeast dirt cheap 2-3 dollars each and I usually grab a couple tubes of belgian or other interesting yeast when I am there and shove it in my fridge. and I have never had a problem with one of those tubes.

I usually make a starter but I once pitched a year old tube of Belgian High Gravity yeast directly into a 2.5 gallon batch of a Belgian Dark Strong, and after about 4 days it took off beautifully.

With any stored, old yeast you just need first to apply the "sniff test" if it smell bad, especially if it smells like week old gorilla poop in a diaper left on the side of the road in the heat of summer.

Then make a starter, and if it takes off you are fine. The purpose of a starter is to reproduce any viable cells in a batch of yeast....that;s how we can grow a starter form the dregs in a bottle of beer incrementally...and that beer may be months old.

Even if you have a few still living cells, you can grow them....That's how we can harvest a huge starter (incrementally) from the dregs in a bottle of some commercial beers. You take those few living cells and grow them into more.

If yeast can be grown from a tiny amount that has been encased in amber for 45 million years, 45 million year old yeast ferments amber ale we really don't need to sweat too much about how old a yeast is, if it's properly stored.

we just need to think in terms of making starters. Viability isn't really an issue if you are reproducing a lot of healthy cells. Which is what you are doing when you make a starter.....

Really even with "old yeast" if there is a few cells, they will reproduce.

 

[BeernuT100]

If you're stepping up a starter, then the age of a yeast isn't really an issue.

Bobby M did a test on year old stored yeast here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/testing-limits-yeast-viability-126707/

And my LHBS cells outdated tubes and packs of yeast dirt cheap 2-3 dollars each and I usually grab a couple tubes of belgian or other interesting yeast when I am there and shove it in my fridge. and I have never had a problem with one of those tubes.

I usually make a starter but I once pitched a year old tube of Belgian High Gravity yeast directly into a 2.5 gallon batch of a Belgian Dark Strong, and after about 4 days it took off beautifully.

With any stored, old yeast you just need first to apply the "sniff test" if it smell bad, especially if it smells like week old gorilla poop in a diaper left on the side of the road in the heat of summer.

Then make a starter, and if it takes off you are fine. The purpose of a starter is to reproduce any viable cells in a batch of yeast....that;s how we can grow a starter form the dregs in a bottle of beer incrementally...and that beer may be months old.

Even if you have a few still living cells, you can grow them....That's how we can harvest a huge starter (incrementally) from the dregs in a bottle of some commercial beers. You take those few living cells and grow them into more.

If yeast can be grown from a tiny amount that has been encased in amber for 45 million years, 45 million year old yeast ferments amber ale we really don't need to sweat too much about how old a yeast is, if it's properly stored.

we just need to think in terms of making starters. Viability isn't really an issue if you are reproducing a lot of healthy cells. Which is what you are doing when you make a starter.....


Really even with "old yeast" if there is a few cells, they will reproduce.

They will produce, but it may not be what it was before. Realize yeast is cheap. Grab a $7 vial and step up a few starters from it to keep on hand.

 

[Revvy]

They will produce, but it may not be what it was before. Realize yeast is cheap. Grab a $7 vial and step up a few starters from it to keep on hand.

My experience and other's have proven different. Even has Charlie Papzian....

I don't know if you know the story of Charlie Papazian's yeast (White Labs "Cry Havoc") or not. He talked about it on basic brewing. The recipes in both Papazian's books, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and The Homebrewers Companion, were originally developed and brewed with this yeast. Papazian had "Cry Havoc" in his yeast stable since 1983.

He has used it nearly continuously since 83, sometimes pitching multiple batches on top of a cake, sometimes washing or not washing, etc. In a basic brewing podcast iirc last year he talked about how a batch of the yeast after a lot of uses picked up a wild mutation, and he noticed an off flavor in a couple batches.

Now most of us would prolly dump that yeast. Instead he washed it, slanted or jarred it (I can't recall which,)marked it, and cold stored it, and pretty much forgot about it for 10-15 years. He had plenty other slants of the yeast strain, so he left it alone.

Well evidently he came across that container of yeast, and for sh!ts and giggles made a beer with it. Evidently after all those years in storage, the wild or mutated yeast died out leaving behind a few viable cells of the "pure" culture, which he grew back into a pretty hardy strain...which iirc is the culture that White Labs actually used for their cry havoc...because of it's tenacity and survivability.

He's been using his yeast constantly for decades, in various strains.....

It really to me, just goes to show once again how really hard it is to f up this beermaking, and that to give the yeast the props they deserve.

I have found that it is usually NOT the yeast that fails, but the brewer's faith.

*shrug*

 

[Pappers_]

I've also used yeast that I've harvested and washed many, many months later, to good results.

Hi Revvy, have you ever used the Cry Havoc? I'd heard that story also and have thought about using it just for kicks.

 

[discgolfin]

They will produce, but it may not be what it was before. Realize yeast is cheap. Grab a $7 vial and step up a few starters from it to keep on hand.


This is what I would do. it most likely would be fine...but the only way to know is to step up a starter of it..this is a must.. if you are going through the trouble why not just get a new vial? Its just American ale yeast..easy to find. I for one do not like yeast washing for various reasons..culturing and slanting is fine but washing can lead to problems if not done perfect..again it could turn out great..but I have been brewing for 5 years and only dumped one batch..a brew from washed yeast that sat too long...was funky and bad..even with a starter.

 

[Revvy]

I've also used yeast that I've harvested and washed many, many months later, to good results.

Hi Revvy, have you ever used the Cry Havoc? I'd heard that story also and have thought about using it just for kicks.

No I keep forgetting about that magical yeast that is both a lager and an ale...I'll have to come up with something to try it with.

And then I will wash it and use it over and over and over and over and over and over, and so on, and so one and so on, all the while laughing in the general direction of BeernuT100 & disgolfin's general directions.

And it'll grow and grow and grow....

:fro:

 

[rockout]

I'm guess I'm gonna just go for it and pitch as I usually would. It doesn't smell like, to borrow a phrase from Revvy, "week old gorilla poop in a diaper left on the side of the road in the heat of summer", but it definitely smells a little different from the other three jars I opened. oh well, maybe the beer will be even BETTER!