Revive Yeast or Throw It out?

[BrewerBS]

I purchased a WYEAST packet in May 2013. It is 1335 British Ale II. The manufacturing date is 17 April 13. I am brewing a 5 gallon batch from a Frocious extract kit from Midwest. The SG is 1.064-1.068. I planned to brew last summer but a kitchen remodel got in my way. The remodel is done and I am ready to brew again! I have stored the yeast packet in my refrigerator since purchase. I want to step it up and hopefully pitch on Thursday. I will be using a stir plate and I have a 1 gallon jug to make my starter in. I calculated on Brewers Friend how many cells are left in the in the packet and it said zero. I have read postings from people using packets that were over a year old. I have also read to start small and build it up over three steps of starters. I have smacked the pack a few hours ago and haven't noticed any growth in the pack. Here are my questions having not done this before.
1. Is it viable?
2. What size should my starters be at each step(this was tough for me to find a way to calculate because I have zero yeast cells right now)? I was thinking 2 liter in a gallon jug? Or should I start with one two and then go to three liters?
3. What gravity should I use at each step, or all the same? I was planning on starting at 1.020 1st, 1.030 2nd, and 1.040 3rd.
4. Can I have too many cells when I am done? I believe that my goal is 12 million cells/ml.
5. Do I decant at each step?
6. And the ever controversial, airlock or foil on top of the starter since I will be building up I feel like O2 will be my friend and should use the foil but I am a contamination freak and like to keep things sealed up.

Thanks

Go Broncos!





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[kh54s10]

You should be able to propagate that pack. I would start with about 250 - 500 ml of 1.020 -1.025 and see where it goes. You might not really see anything. If you poured the yeast into the vessel and let it settle to see how much is on the bottom, then put it on the stirplate, then see if there is an increase in the amount of yeast. After the first step I do all additional steps about 1.040.

I step up frozen yeast samples (5 ml). I step until it looks like one pack/vial then use yeastcalc.com (which seems to be down now) or mrmalty.com and continue for my recipe. So your additional step sizes and gravity depend on your recipe.

I usually do two small steps first, then decant any additional or larger ones. And decant before pitching.