Accidentally frozen liquid yeast pack, 4 months old

[RPh_Guy]

No starter.
Aaaaaaand here we are 24 hours after pitching:

Definitely a healthy amount of activity.

Wyeast 3278 arrived in the mail frozen like slushy.
Brew day I took it out of the fridge and activated the pack about 4 hours before pitching. 5.9 gallons of 1.055 wort. I didn't even aerate besides splash racking into the fermenter. Pitched at 63°F. Ambient is 70°F.

Despite being frozen, being 4 months past manufacturing, poor aeration, and no starter, it has good activity after only a day. Wow!
Hopefully the other microbes in the blend survived too!

 

[cactusgarrett]

You're a bigger person than me, attempting to use it with little assurance.

Yeah, I had the same thing happen to a WL pure pitch pack - turned into a slushy in the mail. Called customer service to see if they could advise or send a new pack; apparently it was on ME to have neglected to include an ice pack when i ordered. The rep said the ice pack serves to insulate the yeast from the cold.

Anyway, the rep quoted something like one cycle of freeze/thaw would only diminish the viability by something like 10%. I had them ship a new pouch regardless. Tried the one that froze, in a starter, and sure enough, worked like a charm.

 

[mongoose33]

Forgive me, but that doesn't look like very much activity at all. It looks (to me) like there was very low viability and what you have is essentially an underpitch.

 

[balrog]

I ordered three WYeasts that travelled WI to MA during hella-cold, with ice pack, in bubble envelope, with 20lb grain.

All arrived Slushishly partial-frozen

All did fine in starters, in beers, in overbuilds with future starters

Yeast be hardy.

Except when it aint.

 

[FatDragon]

Forgive me, but that doesn't look like very much activity at all. It looks (to me) like there was very low viability and what you have is essentially an underpitch.

It's a Lambic blend. That might be part of it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I did order an ice pack and bubble insulation. The ice pack was still frozen solid; lot of good that did.

... Yeah, Belgian Lambic Blend allegedly already contains a relatively low Sacc count. Underpitching helps increase esters.

Low or even no viability wouldn't have been an issue, so I wasn't worried. I have this blend already in my yeast bank plus lots of other cultures.
RDWHAHB.