No starter activity with frozen yeast

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

I made a large (~1.5 liter) starter with a 300 ml slurry of Imperial Organics A20 "Citrus," which I think is the same strain as WLP 644. The slurry had been in the freezer since early June. I harvested it according to Woodland Brewing's sticky at the top of this thread. (This was my first time harvesting yeast, so I'm not sure if I did it perfectly or not. I did use glycerine.) The starter still smells like wort, not beer. Should I take this as a sign that the slurry is dead, or should I give it more time? I'm brewing tomorrow.

 

[jtratcliff]

Give it more time, but have a packet of dry yeast on hand just in case...

 

[Yooper]

If you just froze the yeast slurry, it would have been frozen and died. But if you froze it with agar on a slant, it should be ok. I don't think you could freeze an entire slurry and have it survive unless you were certain about the amount of glycerine and even though I'd wonder.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

If you just froze the yeast slurry, it would have been frozen and died. But if you froze it with agar on a slant, it should be ok. I don't think you could freeze an entire slurry and have it survive unless you were certain about the amount of glycerine and even though I'd wonder.

I just followed the instructions in the sticky at the top of this forum about simple yeast storage. I added 10% glycerine to the slurry, mixed it up well, and then put it in the freezer. Maybe I misinterpreted the method. Is this not something I should do?

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

Well, I just threw in some dregs from the beer I had harvested the yeast from, so now the starter is going. Lesson learned, I guess.