Starter for old yeast

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The_Nid_Hog

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The other day, I found a vial of Yeast Bay's Saison Blend on the door of my refrigerator. I bought two last year--one for me and one for a buddy. He ended up deciding he didn't want it, and I forgot all about it. It's "use by" date was August 2014, so I imagine it was made in mid-April.

I decided I'd see if I could bring it around, so I planned to step it up across a couple of starters and brew with it at the end of the week. I'm not using a stir plate--just shaking it whenever I go by. I started it in a one-liter starter on Sunday night. Not much activity yesterday, but today it's going like crazy.



Once it's past it's peak, I'll move to the second starter and get ready to brew.
 
The other day, I found a vial of Yeast Bay's Saison Blend on the door of my refrigerator. I bought two last year--one for me and one for a buddy. He ended up deciding he didn't want it, and I forgot all about it. It's "use by" date was August 2014, so I imagine it was made in mid-April.

I decided I'd see if I could bring it around, so I planned to step it up across a couple of starters and brew with it at the end of the week. I'm not using a stir plate--just shaking it whenever I go by. I started it in a one-liter starter on Sunday night. Not much activity yesterday, but today it's going like crazy.



Once it's past it's peak, I'll move to the second starter and get ready to brew.

Nice.
 
I used the starter to brew a saison based roughly on Saison Dupont. Dry hopped it and blended it with a bottle of Gewürztraminer (on a suggestion from Old Sock's webpage) before bottling. Just opened the first bottle the other day--it's excellent. I'm glad I decided to give this old vial of yeast a second chance.
 
ive found as long as you make a decently small sized starter you can use yeast that is more than a year past its prime. Ive got some in my fridge that are over a year old
 
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