Wyeast 3068 with almost 6 months

[ozpt]

Hi,

I brewed today a Wheat beer, everything went ok, but when I was going to add the yeast I forgot that this was a liquid yeast (I'm used to dry yeast) and the MFG is 14 May 2015. So it has 5 months and a half. I have smacked it and I'm waiting it to swell (2h now).
The wort is in the carboy with the airlock and sanitizer waiting for the yeast.
Batch size is 23 litres and starting gravity of 1.054.
Should I make a starter or maybe wait 12h and then dump it?

If I need to make a starter, can I use the wort that I made or just water and DME?

What are your opinions?

Thanks in advance

 

[Sammy86]

Starter is probably the safest thing to do...I just used two yeast starter calculators homebrew dad and brew United...both said a two step starter to get the amount of healthy yeast needed.

If it were me I would make a fresh starter out of DME to get a 1.040 wort.

Just my .02

 

[dmtaylor]

You know what? Hefeweizen is one style where it's actually better if you underpitch than if you pitch "the recommended amount". At 5.5 months old, I imagine it might take 24 hours or a little longer for that yeast pack to swell up, but once it does, throw it in there. I bet everything will turn out fine. If it doesn't swell after about 30 hours, you'll need to buy more yeast though. So, there's a bit of unknown. I mean, you want to make sure it's at least alive before you go for it. But if it is, pitch it and I think you'll be in good shape.

 

[ozpt]

Thanks for both replys.

I will wait a day or two to see if it's alive.
I forgot to mention that I bought the yeast on June and kept it the fridge until now.

 

[Spyk'd]

I would just pitch it. A nice long lag time on this style isn't necessarily a bad idea. While this is happening, I'd get a line on some dry yeast and from this day forward, always have a pack of US-05 on hand at all times.


I'd rather under pitch and have the possibility of it kicking off than letting wort sit around too long unpitched.


MY $.02!

 

[unionrdr]

Here's my experience with WY3068. I had made a batch of dampfbier, which uses all barley malt with wheat beer yeast traditionally. So, I swelled the smack pack & pitched it. Some 24 hours or so, nothing. Went & got another one, swelled & pitched it. within minutes of pitching the 2nd one, the first one had apparently gotten through the lag phase & took off. So try to swell it, if it does, then pitch it & give it time.

 

[ozpt]

Thanks for the replies.

I pitched the yeast, yesterday after 20h of smacking the pack. Fermentation has not started yet. I will wait 2 more days.
If it doesn't start at all I will pitch a pack of dry WB06 yeast that I bought today.
don't know if it's good or not, mixing this two yeast, but I will give it a try and hope for a good result. Maybe it surprises me