Oldest smackpack used? Wyeast

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

TeeJo

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2014
Messages
284
Reaction score
54
Just smacked a pack of 1098 British Ale that has been buried in the back of the fridge.

Waiting to see if there are any signs of life.

Intent is to use it instead of dregs from the last batch, to make a straightforward cider. Straight store-bought apple juice, Frozen concentrate, yeast. Maybe some honey. :)

I have some dry Coopers (unmarked as to type), as well as a 1/2 pint or so of dregs saved from the last batch, which was also Coopers, so, nothing to lose.

Just kinda curious as to how long these yeastie beasties are likely to hold up for, since someone just posted that he was feeling put out to get a six week old pouch from his supplier.

TeeJo
 
I feel kinda dumb for not including that.

How do you edit a post around here anyway? Edited: Why did the 'edit' button not appear in the first post? Curious!

It is dated 17 Feb 14, so it's about a year and a bit old.

I fully expect the stuff to have had at least some survivors...

TeeJo
 
By their estimate, the yeast is all dead at 5 months. Funny that, as ther is a definite thickening of the package sitting here on my desk.

If it shows any more growth in the morning, I will like as not, pitch the contents into one of the jugs of apple juice and step up the volume of juice after it gets rolling along pretty solidly.

This is my first ever try with liquid yeasts. Nothing to lose, as the money was spent long ago, and the worst I figure I will get is a bit of extra trub in the carboy when I'm done.

TeeJo
 
Well, the package had showed some swelling, well over twice the thickness it started out at, so there is some life there.

Pitched the contents into a liter of apple juice, gave the bottle a good shake, and now...we wait!

TeeJo.
 
Well, pitched the contents into 1 liter of juice in a bottle, and after 1 1/2 days, it shows definite signs of life.

I'll give it another day here on the desk, and likely pitch this into 4 liters of juice and see where that gets me for a couple days, then dump the whole lot into a carboy to work.

Where there is life, there is hope! :)

TeeJo
 
I've smacked 2 year old packs and made great beer with them. Just takes a couple days to swell, then of course I always made a starter.
 
Well, interesting differences in this yeast from the stuff used previously.

Nearly a two inch layer of settled out yeast along the sides of the bottom of the carboy, as well as an active bubbling krausen (?) that rose high enough that there is a yeast sediment layer in the airlock too.

Big bubbles, lots of them, and it smells...glorious! :)

Now I need to decide what to brew with the yeast after this is done....

TeeJo
 
I made a 1.4 L starter off a 4 month old pack last week; I pitched last Thursday morning. The beer, O.G. 1058, was done (1.006--mashed a little cool) last night and I dry hopped.

The calculators are way too conservative for packaged yeast.
 
I did a starter last year with a 2 year old Wyeast. It took >36 hours for the pack to swell and then I stepped it up twice. It ended up working great. Just took awhile to revive the suckers.
 
Back
Top