Reviving 2 yo WLP001

[Tribe Fan]

I had one last 4 oz jar of washed WLP001 in the fridge from Sept 16. The last jar always has the thinnest layer of slurry, so there wasn't much to work with here.

I made a 1.5L all grain starter of 1.040. Boiled the wort, sanitized the beaker and pour the boiling wort into the beaker. I cooled the wort and let the yeast and wort sit next to each other overnight so they would both be at room temp. I pitched the next morning.

I swirled it around a bunch yesterday. There is a healthy amount of trub in the bottom of the beaker. But 27 hours later, no signs of life.

When do I cross the line between worrying about something wild taking off instead of the WLP001? Waiting another day or two is not an issue if there is a reasonable probability it will yield the yeast I want.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

If you can afford to wait a couple days, you might as well let it ride. If it doesn't work, fine; if it does, great!

In the future though, with something like a 2 years old homebrewed washed yeast, I am hazarding to think the viability of your 4oz was quite low to start. Additionally, you are just randomly swirling vs a stir plate so that is less than ideal. All of that said, I think starting with a smaller starter probably would have been the most advisable step forward-- closer to 1/4 liter vs your 1.5 liter starter. You may just be experiencing really long lag time due to the initial low viable starting cell count.

Taking tall of that into consideration I would still think there is hope for your starter---

 

[Tribe Fan]

If you can afford to wait a couple days, you might as well let it ride. If it doesn't work, fine; if it does, great!

In the future though, with something like a 2 years old homebrewed washed yeast, I am hazarding to think the viability of your 4oz was quite low to start. Additionally, you are just randomly swirling vs a stir plate so that is less than ideal. All of that said, I think starting with a smaller starter probably would have been the most advisable step forward-- closer to 1/4 liter vs your 1.5 liter starter. You may just be experiencing really long lag time due to the initial low viable starting cell count.

Taking tall of that into consideration I would still think there is hope for your starter---

Thanks. Yeah I took the lazy way out, if there is such a thing for trying to re-use free yeast. I was testing the all grain volumes for my batch starters. I have some yeast cakes to harvest from soon. The calculator had 5% viability but I had no idea how much was in there to be viable.

 

[logos]

Thanks. Yeah I took the lazy way out, if there is such a thing for trying to re-use free yeast. I was testing the all grain volumes for my batch starters. I have some yeast cakes to harvest from soon. The calculator had 5% viability but I had no idea how much was in there to be viable.

I was able to get a three-year-old sample of Wyeast 1056 American ale yeast To grow. The difference was mine was stored in the freezer in 50% glycerol.I would say it’s worth a try and I would probably like it ferment for about 48 hours before giving up. Of course if it takes that long to start fermenting the question becomes is it actually the sample or is it contamination.

 

[catdaddy66]

In the last 6 mos I have had two strains that were 1-1.5 years old start up. I was on the verge of tossing out both of them, but decided to sleep on it instead. I got up to obvious krausen both times and they made great beer.

Let it ride 24 more hours (imo).

 

[mongoose33]

I always oxygenate the starter wort before I pitch yeast into it. In the future, you might try that as well.

 

[Tribe Fan]

Signs of life!! Hopefully it's American Ale yeast.

 

[Tribe Fan]

And we have liftoff. It's remarkable how resilient these critters are.