WLP4626 advice on a tricky decision

[St00]

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/823553/mb-brett-saison

On Friday 24th June I made this recipe. I have to say I've never had a brewday go so well (or so I thought!).

Pitched two vials of this yeast and sat back ready for fermentation, rubbing my hands with glee.

Currently there's absolutely no signs of life... NOTHING! WOE UNTO MY POTENTIAL BEER!

Scratching my head I fetched the vials and then noticed they were dated September 2015.......

It took a lot of preparation and a day off to make. I'm not giving up on it just yet.

Advice needed on:

Option A) Sanitise tubing and a new FV. Syphon beer into new FV. Leave in wardrobe. Then do a starter for 48 hours with the yeast in the bottom.

After 48 hours, aerate the wort into a new FV and pitch the starter. (Possibly pitch Daanstar Saison dried year if the starter fails)

Option B) Syphon in to a new sanitised FV and just pitch the dried yeast.

Option C) drop my immersion heater in and ramp it up to the 28°c mark.

Many thanks to anyone who proffers assistance.

Regards,
Stuart

 

[MrPowers]

If the yeast was stored under proper conditions, you might get some activity if you are patient.

Racking at this point really isn't going to do much for you, even if you try to make a starter out of the yeast on the bottom. If you're really worried about getting fermentation going, just pitch a packet of dry yeast into the same fermentor.

I would not ramp the temperature yet, as that has the potential to cause the yeast to produce some off flavors.

 

[madscientist451]

The 2 vials of yeast you added isn't going to hurt anything, so there's no reason to siphon the wort to another FV; toss in the dried yeast ASAP and hope for the best.

 

[kh54s10]

Well you started with about 8% viability. I don't know if this is the same with both the Saccharomyces and the Brett in the blend. It seems to me the easiest would be to buy new yeast. If you bought it recently the shop should replace it free of charge......

If you use your dry yeast just rehydrate it and add it to the fermenter without racking.

 

[St00]

Thank you folks. I'll take that on board. Now to aerate or not aerate? That is the question!

The yeast was in my garage fridge. I just hadn't realised how long I'd left it in there, utterly my fault and no way I'd deserve a refund. Imagine if they started refunding folk due to being idiots, actually I'd have been rich by now

 

[St00]

Hi folks, just to let you know that the beer's been bubbling away now for the last 24 hours. Now to see whether it carries on. I'll give it a week and take a gravity reading.

I'm really curious to see how it comes out, what with the mix of liquid yeast, brett and dry yeast.