issues with washed yeast

[jpr210]

for fathers day my father and i went to a family friends house to brew (i need to set this up as i have not been able to check on the beer, so dont tell me "use your hydrometer, duh!"). from what our friend has been telling us, there is no krausen, no airlock activity, no nothin. now, its hard to diagnose the problem without being able to see it, but i want to know if anybody has had problems using washed yeast before. i have had no problems to date, but the yeast were closer to being fresh then. i used 2 jars of 1084 that i had washed probably last summer or so. they have stayed in the refrigerator since then. do yeast die of old age? if i pitch some new yeast will it kick start fermentation or would i have to worry about autolysis? por favor ayudame borrachos

 

[bkl63]

Generally after a few weeks in the fridge you need to make a starter with the yeast to increase viabililty.

 

[chumpsteak]

That's a long time in the fridge. Not sure if they die of old age but if they froze accidentally or something like that you could have killed most or all of them off. Also, a certain number die every week or so, so who knows how many were still alive almost a year later. You should have done a starter to make sure they were still viable. At this point I'd wait 3 days from pitching to see if they start and then re-pitch if it were me. Even if they do start up eventually you may end up with off flavors from not enough healthy yeast. Might just want to repitch anyway to be safe.

 

[ghall]

Re-pitch. Over a year is far too long. I wont use after a month or two. After two weeks i always do a starter.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

What type of beer did you make? If its a small brew, maybe your friend just missed the activity overnight. I usually make starters with washed yeast, but i did once pitch a jar into a 1 gallon test batch thinking a starter would be over kill. It was very slow (2 days) to get going.

 

[joetothemo]

That's way too long, man. Those yeast cells are too far gone. You need to pitch fresh, healthy yeast.

 

[Whut]

I've successfully used washed yeast that was 9 months old but as others have said, I made a starter first.

 

[jpr210]

thanks for the input gents. it is very curious, my last two batches were made with yeast about as old and they were faithfully chugging and glugging away, this one, no dice. i think ill pitch some more yeast if i can get over there in a day or two, otherwise, i guess ill have to brew again, aw shucks