Liquid Yeast Getting Hot During Shipment

[mcurtis431]

I live in the South and been ordering liquid Wyeast smack packs from AHS. This is about a 2 day shipment so the yeast becomes very warm in these summer months. How does this affect the vitality of the yeast? I noticed my last IPA batch had much slower fermentation that I expected....I read if yeast becomes warm it can slow fermentation.

Should I be using dry yeast instead of liquid?

 

[hadabar]

If you make a starter, this would let you know your yeast vitality, and improve the chance of a proper fermentation. It will let you replenish your yeast count, in lew of the ones lost during shipping.

Yeast nutrient, starter, oxygen...the trinity of good fermentation in my opinion.

I life in fl, so I feel yah.

Best thing is try to start washing your yeasts, keep em at home.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Wyeast on their package suggest longer starts when exposed to medium heat (under 100F).

I have a pack of Wyeast 1007 that is sitting in the car at the Charlotte airport over the week-end that will be used next week. Since the yeast is not active, I do not see how it could have fermentation byproducts. I could see yeast count death.

M_C

 

[Calder]

If it gets too hot, yeast will die. Make a starter. It will do 2 things: Confirm vitality or not, and increase the yeast count. One of the good things about a yeast starter is that if the cell count into a starter of a given size is lower than normal (say half the pack is dead), it will reproduce more such that the end result of the starter will be a similar amount of cells to that you would have had with the starter if all the cells were healthy.

 

[JoeyChopps]

I agree I got plenty of "hot" yeast this summer and a starter really did the trick

 

[erikpete18]

Yeah, too much warmth and your yeast will start to die off, but a starter will fix all your problems (and is probably a good idea anyways). Also, AHS has an option when you order to add an ice pack for a couple of bucks, definitely worth it in my opinion in these warm summer months. A lot of days my package can wind up sitting outside for several hours in the sun (not to mention the several days to get to WI), but I don't know that I've ever ordered from them and had the ice pack completely melted and warm when it showed. Maybe not needed since I make a starter anyways, but a couple of bucks is worth my piece of mind