My yeast isn't dead! WooHoo!

I'm so psyched! I have some washed yeast in the downstairs beer fridge that's been there since the spring of '09. Decided to see if any of it was still viable, so on Wednesday I pulled one of my jars of WLP300.

The cake in the bottom of the jar was quite gray. But when I poured off the "beer" and gave it a sniff, it smelled fine. I made a 0.5L starter, set it on the stirplate, and poured in the yeast.

Nothing was happening as late as last night. The starter was still dark, though it smelled OK. I was beginning to get disheartened but by this morning the starter was a nice milky color. Seemed like it happened pretty quickly.

I made up a seperate 1L starter and set it aside. I turned off the stirplate and let the original starter settle for about 20 minutes then poured it off into the new starter, leaving (hopefully) all the dead gray yeasties in the original flask.

Now, this afternoon, the now 1.5L starter on my stirplate is nice, light, creamy, with a 2" krausen. Looks like I'll be ready to brew a batch of EdWort's Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen next weekend!

WooHoo!

 

Good to see someone having solid luck with harvested yeast that's been stored for that long... I haven't had any of my jars in the fridge for nearly that long yet... It does give me the confidence that yeast stored in the fridge CAN be used even after an extended period. I doubt I'll go a full two yeast between harvesting and using yeast, but it's nice to know you could...

Have fun with the more economical brew day. :rockin:

 

Now there's a good starter question. Do you pour off the liquid and use the yeast that has settled to the bottom OR do you use the liquid and throw away the bottom yeast like he did?

I thought you ditched the liquid and remixed the yeast with some sterile water so you could pour it into the wort.

 

BrewHam

When stepping up my starter, I let the original starter settle for 15-20 minutes b/c the washed yeast I started with was off-color. I suspected alot of dead yeasties which I didn't want in my beer. So, following the yeast washing technique, I let the starter settle then poured the live yeast and wort into the next stage of starter. What was left, other than my stir bar, was definitely dark gray in color.

I'll crash the starter for several days before I brew and decant before I pitch.

 

If Brewing Beer From 45-Million-Year-Old Yeast is possible, why would anyone doubt that yeast stored in a cool place wouldn't be.

 

No sh!t .