Expired Liquid Yeast

[Furore]

Hey Guys,

Haven't brewed in a while until recently, and went ahead and did a Hefeweizen BIAB to start off summer. My Wyeast WY3068 was a year or so past expiration and the bag swelled ok, but I went ahead and pitched it anyway out of curiosity (and fear something wild would ferment it) on Sunday AM and ordered a replacement in case it didn't take off. Nearest LHBS is 2h roundtrip. No activity until suddenly this evening (48h mark) where it has started to bubble (now every ~4s) and a foamy krausen is starting to build. I have always used dry yeast and was admittedly lazy not doing a starter for this.

My question is do I pitch the additional yeast Thursday when it arrives, or should I save it for another batch? Has the damage with strained yeast and throwing weird esters already been done or would the extra cells help stabilize and fully attenuate the beer? Live and learn and HAHB I suppose.

Thanks gents,
Adam

 

[wepeeler]

Save the new yeast. This beer might turn out just fine. I've never had lag time more than 16 hours, but I routinely make starters and pitch healthy yeast. Temp control and contamination would be more of a concern for off flavors.

RDWHAHB

 

[lumpher]

What will happen has mostly already happened. If it smelled ok and didn't smack you in the face when you opened it, it'll be fine. I've seen people use 2 year old yeast (with a starter) and it came out fine.

 

[marc1]

It's a bold gamble to risk a batch of beer on a year-expired pack of liquid yeast without a starter. I recommend making a starter with liquid yeast regardless of the age to make sure that it is happy and gives a good ferment.

Now that it's going, I don't think the newly purchased yeast will give you anything extra. Save it for next time.

Keep us posted on how it comes out!

 

[Furore]

Yeah sort of what I am thinking... there were no off flavors when I took a wiff. Airlock is rolling about a bubble per second now but zero krausen. Last night was more of a foam than a krausen and was only around for a few hours. Appears to be nice looking circulation of yeast in the carboy. Temp is a stable 72 and I am pretty good with my sanitation practices. Minus the slow start and complete lack of krausen id say its going pretty well.

@Marc - it was just one of those rare free days where I had with no chores, and decided it would be a good day to finally brew my 20th batch and experiment with BIAB and smoke a bunch of meat so it was a productive day regardless of my $30 gamble. I will definitely report back on this one so it can go into the archives for the next guy who doesn't have patience. Not sure if I have seen a thread about year expired liquid yeast and no starter used in the same experiment.

Will keep you guys posted, thanks for the replies and advice.