Four year old Smack Packs

[urbanmyth]

I was given these Wyeast smack packs by the owner of my LHBS today. One pack of Lambic Blend 3278, one pack of Schelde 3655 and two packs of Biere de Garde 3725. They are all right around four years old, but still swelled up proper when they were smacked to check for viability. Anybody out there have experience using yeast this old?

I was planning on brewing the lambic tomorrow, and I am not too worried about building that one up, as I have years to wait on that one. I haven't even ever heard of Schelde yeast, let alone have any idea what to brew with it. Currently reading up on Belgian beers, so I am excited to use this free, hopefully useful yeast!

Any and all help and suggestions welcome.

 

[pelipen]

Zero suggestions, but I'm curious to know how it turns out.
I suppose if it smells ok...

 

[OvaTersley]

pretty cool.
I think we way underestimate our yeasty companions ability for survival.
After the apocalypse, these guys will still be out there, hanging with the cockroaches.

 

[urbanmyth]

I think I will build up starters for the packs that aren't the lambic. Worst that can happen is I am out a couple cups of DME.

 

[jtejedor]

I wish you luck but I lost a couple of batches gambling on yeat that was 2 or 3 years old. Even in the smackpacks there is a little bit of wild yeast and bacteria, I think when the packs get this old those other things start to take hold. The batches I made I did all I could, made a small first starter and grew them up with multiple steps. The beers came out smelling strongly of clove and had horrible bandaid flavors. That has prompted me to never keep yeast around for longer then a year. It really sucks to lose a whole batch. Just smell the starter and even taste it, although the astic flavors did take a little bit of time to develop so that might not be detectable in the starter. I wouldn't risk it but hopefully it fares better for you.

 

[urbanmyth]

If that is the case, I think I will stick to a half batch. Cut my losses if indeed wild yeast can take over and spoil things.

 

[passedpawn]

How long did it take the pouches to swell?

 

[urbanmyth]

Not too long. The owner of the shop smacked them a while ago, and said they swelled right up overnight. I know it isn't the ideal situation to be in yeast wise, but I couldn't pass on $30 worth of the stuff.

 

[DannPM]

I'm surprised and intrigued, keep us updated.

 

[urbanmyth]

Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is the Biere de Garde and lambic packs were viable. The lambic won't be done until I graduated from college in a couple years, but I hope it turns out well. If not, I only invested about $15 in grain and hops in it. The Biere de Garde is still sitting in the starter wort I made up for it, but it reproduced and fermented out the starter wort nicely. It even tasted pretty damn good, too.

The Schelde did not show any activity after a month in starter wort, so I dumped it. I'd say 3/4 on free yeast is a success! Now to find a good Biere de Garde recipe to use.

 

[Polboy]

last night i made a starter out of notty pack that was expired a year ago, activity was fine and its cold crashing in the fridge, i think i will pitch it tomorrow in to 1/2 of my batch