I just got a liquid whites lab yeast vial from a mail order site. The use by date on the bottle is Sept 18th. Today is the 23rd. I'm not going to use it for a few days. How important is the date on the vial?
If you make a starter, then the age of a yeast isn't really an issue. When you make a starter, and grow it, you're replicating more yeast to make up for any loss. You're making new, fresh yeast.
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And my LHBS cells outdated tubes and packs of yeast dirt cheap 2-3 dollars each and I usually grab a couple tubes of belgian or other interesting yeast when I am there and shove it in my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.
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.
Dilligans said:revvy I have heard about that? growing yeast from existing beers.... I was wondering Have you ever made a started from beers like dogfish head and Sierra nevada? I am wondering if this is possible.. let me know?
I don't know about Dogfish Head or Sierra Nevada. I've don't Hoegaarden, Maudite, Bells yeast and Pacman, Rogue's signature yeast.
There's a guy trying to compile an updated list of successfully harvested beers here..
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