Trying to revive 5 year old yeast

[msa8967]

Found 3 Wyeast smack packs of their Belgian Trappist yeast that I am going to try to revive. I put all three packs in a 500 ml starter and hopefully I will see some action on my stir plate within a week. All 3 packs were manufactured November 2011 and have been kept cold sine then. Anyone ever revive yeast this old before?

 

[Brew_G]

That's awesome. I hope it turns out!

I plan on making a starter with Wyeast 2565 with a July 2014 manufacture date for a Kölsch I'm going to brew in a couple months. If yours works, then I'm going into that one pretty confident!

 

[eddiewould]

subb'd.

 

[Summers]

Whoa and I thought I was pushing the limits with my 5 month old yeast, I am going to follow this thread.

 

[BigFloppy]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=544134

start weak and grow it gradually

 

[botigol]

Nope, two years and change is as far as I've gone.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Is this a quest to see if you can do it, or to save money? After the weeks of step up starters and the cost of those starters plus your time it seems like this must be a bet you have with SWMBO that you won't toss them because they're still "good".

 

[Dog House Brew]

I've done this several times. I can wort so it makes it much easier. Start small quantity and low gravity. I start at 300ml. Not sure how I got that volume. I make sure my sanitation is spot on. It takes some time for it to take off. I always start with shaking the starter. Create as much foam as I can. I'll move to the stir plate once it gets going. Usually the third step up. Good luck.

 

[BigFloppy]

This is a "18 Mei 2010" Duvel Tripel Hopped just re-awakened (4 days on stirrer) straight from the bottle dregs to the stir plate YUM

Guess what I'm brewing this weekend