Viability of Sediment

[Superdave]

How long will yeast sediment be viable in the bottle?

I've got some beer that I brewed and bottled about 11 months ago. I'd like to brew it again soon, but have been having a hard time finding yeast at home.

So I remembered that there are a couple of bottles still around from then. Would the yeast still be viable for culturing? The bottles have been refrigerated for most of the time, though maybe not quite all (if it was out of the fridge, it would have been at the beginning of that time).

How long can you expect to get a culture out of a bottle?

 

[Revvy]

Well there's really no way to tell how long a commercial beer that we try to harvest from has sat in it's bottle, and yet we try.

And both Bobby M and myself have grown viable yeast from year old tubes or jars of yeast.

The thing about harvesting yeast is, that it doesn't take a lot of viable cells tobe able to grow into a starter.....

and honestly the only way we can EVER know if a yeast is viable really, is to make a starter...

So drink up, and get reproducing....you will either have enough viable to cells or you won't/ It is really that simple....we can speculate all you want us to, but unless you add dregs to wort, none of us will really know.

 

[WorryWort]

Totally! Make a starter, see what happens!

 

[jds]

Speaking for myself, I've successfully recultured yeast from slants that were refrigerated for more than a year.

Start small, like with 100 ml of starter, and step up slowly. The initial culture may be sluggish, but once it gets going, it should step up just fine.

 

[Droot]

The only way you will know is to proof the yeast or like said above make a starter. Its the same thing. In the end its a win win.

David