yeast stuck in mail over holiday weekend. What to expect?

[dawn_kiebawls]

I ordered a lot of yeast (ECY bugfarm, bugcountry and bugfarm 2) on the 19th, it shipped on the 20th and was supposed to be here today, the 23rd. For whatever reason the delivery is delayed and my fear is that since USPS doesnt deliver on Sundays (that I know of) and Monday is a holiday the yeast will be sitting in a hot warehouse or boxtruck until Tuesday and be dead on arrival. I did pay extra for 6 icepacks (1 for each vial) and individual little foil-like pouches for the vials to be in, though. Temps locally have been fluctuating from mid 60's at night to 80 during the day and I suspect that's the same everywhere they've been (shipping from NJ to NE).

So my question is, what do you think the chances are of my little bugs arriving healthy, or, at least viable enough to brew with? Up until now I have never ordered yeast because of this exact scenario and I'm not sure if I will ever do it again. Cheers!

 

[Ralphie0523]

They will probably be ok, the yeast can tolerate those temps pretty well. If you are very concerned I would consider a starter or a smaller batch to build up and harvest (if you don’t harvest this might be a great time to start).

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

They will probably be ok, the yeast can tolerate those temps pretty well. If you are very concerned I would consider a starter or a smaller batch to build up and harvest (if you don’t harvest this might be a great time to start).

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I wasn't planning on making a starter to brew with but I will be now just to make sure they're still kickin'.

I havent been harvesting up until now, but have been getting prepared to start since these strains are pretty hard to come by. I'm still not exactly sure how to but I will figure it out. Thanks again, and I hope you're right!

 

[VikeMan]

I ordered a lot of yeast (ECY bugfarm, bugcountry and bugfarm 2) on the 19th, it shipped on the 20th and was supposed to be here today, the 23rd. For whatever reason the delivery is delayed and my fear is that since USPS doesnt deliver on Sundays (that I know of) and Monday is a holiday the yeast will be sitting in a hot warehouse or boxtruck until Tuesday and be dead on arrival.

I think those microbes you ordered are various blends of Sacch yeast, Brett yeast, Lactobacillus bacteria, and or Pediococcus bacteria. I suspect the various microbes are surviving at different rates. For example, Brett tends to be more tolerant of heat than Sacch yeasts. Not that this will ruin your beer or anything... just that you might get a different character from these blends than if they didn't spend some time warm.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I think those microbes you ordered are various blends of Sacch yeast, Brett yeast, Lactobacillus bacteria, and or Pediococcus bacteria. I suspect the various microbes are surviving at different rates. For example, Brett tends to be more tolerant of heat than Sacch yeasts. Not that this will ruin your beer or anything... just that you might get a different character from these blends than if they didn't spend some time warm.

I thought the same thing. Similar to why I wasn't planning on making a starter for these blends, only...kinda opposite? lol Thanks for helping ease my stress. I tend to get a little neurotic when stuff like this happens

 

[IslandLizard]

RDWHAHB! Chances are it's not sweltering hot yet along the route.

I hear you, you try to get them in before the holiday weekend, then a logistics snafu puts them 3 days behind the 8-ball. Weren't they send Priority Mail?

Generally, don't make starters from yeast/bacteria blends. The rate at which each propagates differs, changing the blend. Not that it matters much, either way, starter or not, it will be always be good! Those are royal pitches!

Anecdote:
A few years ago, my wife had ordered a new cell phone with ample time allowance for delivery. Then Fedex screwed up badly, kept "moving" the delivery date, and didn't deliver, as they were supposed to, before we left for a long holiday weekend.

Not taking any chances, we picked up the package at our semi-local Fedex location at 7 a.m. the morning we had planned to leave. It was on the truck already, but they retrieved it before it departed. Phew!

We ended up not leaving until midnight and drove into to venue at 7:30 a.m. and claimed our stage front seats, 3 hours before the first band played. All was well, and had a friggin' great Labor Day weekend!
Oh, and we had our "little" traditional NEIPA party at noon, right after the first band wrapped up.

 

[Ralphie0523]

I havent been harvesting up until now, but have been getting prepared to start since these strains are pretty hard to come by. I'm still not exactly sure how to but I will figure it out. Thanks again, and I hope you're right!

There are many ways to harvest that many threads can help you with. I am time and money challenged with young children, so I just use simple pint mason jars and harvest slurry from my 5 or 1 gallon batches. If my yeast seems like it might be short for a 5 gallon I use a 1 gallon batch as a glorified starter. Given the pandemic I have also started using yeast nutrient every so often in my 1 gallon batches to keep the yeast more on track in terms of health.

I am 100% sure there is room for improvement in my practices to get to someone else’s version of ideal but for me this works very well in the time vs. payoff category. Your mileage may vary.

 

[LittleRiver]

...harvesting... not exactly sure how...

I use 4oz canning jars to collect yeast. I like that size, because one jar is a good size to pitch into the next batch. Also, the small jars don't take up much space in the fridge.

To collect yeast, I sanitize a clean jar in Starsan, and don't fill it quite full. You want some head space for expansion. I fully screw the top on, but only just barely tighten it so that gas can bleed off.

It's best to have a little beer on top of the yeast while it's in storage. I find that with low/medium flocculating yeast there is enough beer mixed with the yeast (in the bottom of the drained fermenter) to just collect it without stirring. The yeast will settle in the bottom of the jar, leaving a small layer of beer on top. With a highly flocculent yeast, it can compact so tightly in the fermenter that it's necessary to leave a little bit of beer in there, then stir or shake the fermenter to mix the beer into the yeast before collecting.

I put a little strip of masking tape on the jar lid, mark the type of yeast, date of collection, and type of beer it was collected from.

For brewing, I'll take a jar out of the fridge and put it on the counter the night before, or first thing in the morning, to give it time to warm up. It'll expand, so I make sure the top is loose and put the jar on a paper towel. Before pitching I'll first pour off the thin layer of beer that is on top of the yeast.

If the jar has only been in the fridge for a few weeks, I'll just pitch it as is, no need for a starter. If it's been in there for a few months, I'll use a tablespoon or two of it to make a starter.

I only collect 2 or 3 jars of yeast from a batch of beer. When I started out I would collect more, but found that I was ending up with more jars of old yeast than I could use in a timely manner.

You can keep re-using a strain for quite some time. I've got some WY1450 I've been re-pitching for over 3 years, without problems.