Wyeast 3763 Roeselare showed up at my door frozen :(

[jhurt]

I ordered this yeast online, and it showed up at my door today frozen solid. Now I know yeast are single-celled organisms and can be damaged by being frozen, but what about all of the bacterial cultures in this yeast blend? (Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus).

I'm planning on thawing it, smacking it and seeing if it's at all viable. I'll also be doing a starter to revise the yeast inside. Is all hope lost? Should I just re-order from my LHBS?

 

[Culbetron]

It will probably be fine. The starter should let you know.

 

[Calder]

I'd nix the starter. That will just grow the yeast. Toss the pack into your wort, and if you have no activity in 2 to 3 days. pitch a fresh pack of a Belgian yeast.

The idea of the blend is for a low cell count of the sacc to let the bugs get a head start on the wort before alcohol is produced. If you make a starter, you defeat that, and any bugs will struggle and tale longer to have an effect.

Since you don't know the viability of any of the bugs, you might want to toss in some dregs from a couple of sour beers to help out.

 

[jhurt]

Thanks Calder. So the freezing will only affect the yeast culture and not the bugs?

 

[Calder]

Thanks Calder. So the freezing will only affect the yeast culture and not the bugs?

I can't say that. That's why I suggested tossing in some dregs from a couple of sours.

There is a recent thread on this same topic that does claim the bugs are OK with freezing. Probably within the last week if you do a search.

Note: Brett is yeast.

Also I saw recently (not sure how much I believe it), is that Chris White (of White labs) says that you only lose 10% yeast viability with each freezing cycle. I thought it was much higher than that; but yeast is his business.

I'd just assume everything is OK. Have some spare sacc yeast just in case, and use it as an excuse to drink a sour or two.

 

[jhurt]

Just an update, I smacked the pack and let it sit overnight. By morning, it had swelled up so I pitched it into a starter. Pitched the starter into my wort and it's happily fermenting away now.

 

[13ONK]

This is anouther reason starters are a good benifit. You can tell if your yeast is good before brewday. In this case the smack pack swelled so you know the yeast is active and wasn't destroyed. The freeze probably effected viabillity though and you are probably pretty short on your pitch depending on your OG & Volume. Just something to keep in mind, starters are easy and are a good way to get consitantly better brews.

 

[jhurt]

This is anouther reason starters are a good benifit. You can tell if your yeast is good before brewday. In this case the smack pack swelled so you know the yeast is active and wasn't destroyed. The freeze probably effected viabillity though and you are probably pretty short on your pitch depending on your OG & Volume. Just something to keep in mind, starters are easy and are a good way to get consitantly better brews.

Amen

 

[rorypayne]

From all the research I did prior to brewing my first sour and using the wyeast roselare was to NOT make a starter. Reason being the reg old sacc ale yeast in the blend will grow much much faster than the bret and other bugs. Don't want to steal the thread but would like to know if anyone had some more insight.

 

[jhurt]

I tweeted wyeast and they told me to do a starter if I wasn't fermenting with another sacc strain first. Also mine showed up frozen so I wanted to make sure the yeast was healthy before pitching.

 

[rorypayne]

Ok so regardless of whether it showed up frozen or not they said to do a starter?

 

[jhurt]

Yes. They said do a starter if it is the only yeast you are pitching. If you are pitching another yeast for primary fermentation, they said don't do a starter.

 

[rorypayne]

Ok I did a straight pitch, took about 42 hours for it to start but once it did it went from 1.055 to 1.018 in 3 days and it's aging now.

What kind if beer did you start with?

 

[jhurt]

It's a flanders red. Jamil's recipe. My first sour beer...hope it goes well!

 

[lbco318]

My roselare just arrived at the door slushy. I'm planning on either brewing tomorrow or Saturday morning. I'm just gonna smack it and see what happens. Worst case scenario I'll just head to my LHBS and pitch with an alternative. Just glad to see you guys had success with your frozen packs.

 

[lbco318]

Ended up being a beautiful day today so I fired up. Smacked my Roselare and within an hour it started to puff up nicely. After four hours it was fully ballooned and fat. I guess that frozen pack wasnt an issue.

 

[jhurt]

Nice. Looks like freezing doesn't affect the viability too too much.