so far the yeast I pitched a no hitter .

[Soulshine2]

Brewed an American Brown Ale on Wednesday . The yeast was a smack pack of WYeast 1450, which when my box arrived 4 days post ship , it was warm as was the cold pack it was wrapped in. Long story on the pack not being properly smacked and pitched without the nutrient "started" but instead pitched it with the nutrient as a chaser. As of this morning 36 hours post pitch ,I got nothing in the way of activity. Not a single bubble . I contacted the distributor yesterday after no activity and he said wait for today. He also asked if I had access to a LHMS if I need to get a replacement yeast. I have all kinds of local breweries here in North Alabama but I doubt they would sell yeast to the public. He gave me the name of Tom Hargraves Supply but then I read up and he has scammed many a homebrewer so Id rather not give him any of my money, but, I may have to .
So , today came and still nothing. In my brewing storage tub I had a couple old packets of Muntons dry brewing yeast ,so what I'm doing now is I drew approximately 4 oz of my lifeless wort into a sterile jar ,shook it up and pitched the Muntons to make a starter, a bit of a Hail Mary here ,but at this point I dont have much other choice without ordering some and have it be another 3 or 4 days . I THINK I see activity in the jar. Keeping my fingers crossed .
So , my question is - as long as a dry yeast is kept sealed ,how long is it still viable ?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Dry yeast should be kept refrigerated to maintain high viability. However dry yeast is pretty durable and it should have plenty of live cells for several years even at room temp.

It's also definitely worthwhile to make starters for liquid yeast.

 

[Soulshine2]

Its all good . Been chugging along a couple hours now

 

[Soulshine2]

Ok, I just wanted to post this. I asked earlier because the Muntons Dry Yeast I used was dated 2009 . It's 9 yrs old. I made a starter with about 4 oz of wort, shook it to get it as full of oxygen as possible (pretty much a jar full of wort foam) before pitching the hail mary ,within 30 minutes it formed a growing kraeusen in the starter jar. I let it sit a while longer then gave it a good gentle swirl to gather it up and pitched it in the fermenter. That was about 8 am yesterday. I saw action in the airlock around 5pm I guess it was.
I just went to the basement to check on it this morning, rockin along nicely. I would like to know how the flavors of the beer will be affected by this yeast and if the 1450 (If I read the description right , it will produce up to 6% )it came with was bad or even lets say got a very sluggish start and this more active yeast (If I read about this right it will produce up to 8%)was pitched over the top. My OG (predicted to be 1.057) was an actual 1.060 .Do ale yeasts play together well or should I expect something funky?

 

[Soulshine2]

Dry yeast should be kept refrigerated to maintain high viability. However dry yeast is pretty durable and it should have plenty of live cells for several years even at room temp.

It's also definitely worthwhile to make starters for liquid yeast.

I have one more packet of the Muntons . Actually the packets I had were never really "cared for" as one would think. They were given to me by a long time friend of mine who had a complete kit but never brewed . the kit was probably 7 yrs old when he gave it to me. It was in a garage subject to the extreme seasonal (Illinois)temperature changes all that time. I put that in my beer fridge ,just in case ... From now on ,I'll be using a dry yeast to make my own starter. I hadnt in the past and just dry pitched but after this panic attack ,I see I need to change my normal tactic to what I had to do. I actually just mentioned a case such as this to a first time brewer too. I'll be buying a packet of "spare dry yeast " in my next purchase . I'll also try to harvest/save yeast after this fermentation is done.

 

[RPh_Guy]

"Muntons brewer’s yeast is a dried brewer’s yeast that produces a powdery flocculation with an apparent attenuation of 70%. Ideal fermentation temperature is between 64° – 70°F to produce an alcohol tolerance of 8% ABV. It provides low ester formation but with relatively high residual sugar giving good body and mouth feel."
http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/category/yeasts-and-other-products/

How do we interpret these numbers? Well, 70% attenuation would put FG around 1.018 and ABV at 6%, which the yeast can tolerate.

When mixing different ale yeasts, the one that starts faster will probably dominate flavor characteristics.

1450 has a slightly higher reference attenuation but it's from a different manufacturer so I'm not sure the numbers are really comparable.
https://wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/dennys-favorite-50-ale
If it's alive in there it could help attenuate a few extra points. There's no way to know.

Starters for dry yeast are unnecessary because the yeast is designed to be pitched immediately (with or without rehydration), and most people don't reuse it because it's inexpensive. Reusing yeast does have risks of contamination.
Generally you should only make starters for liquid yeast. Use a pitching rate calculator for a traditional starter or use a vitality starter.

 

[Soulshine2]

Ok, I appreciate your research on the 2 yeasts I used. Although I'm still not 100% convinced the smack pack yeast wasnt working , maybe just sluggish, who can tell now , right? The reason I made a starter with the Muntons was because of the age of it,2009. I wasn't about to pitch another "dead" yeast and then worry about what to do . I don't exactly have a LHBS around and the clock was ticking. I am very happy to hear the finished characteristics of the Muntons , sounds like it will ferment my Brown Ale just fine and give the body and mouthfeel I was after in the first place. I didn't know if one (more aggressive)yeast over another (hopeful but sluggish one) would dominate or somehow clash and form some godawful flavors or weird aftertaste.