The resilience of yeast

I’ve been thinking about a bière de garde for awhile, and finally got around to putting together my starter this last weekend. I’ve had a vial of wlp072 in my fridge for awhile, and dug it out and checked the date. Expired June 2016. Well poop. No sense in just tossing it out, so I dumped it in the starter and hoped for the best.

No activity Saturday, no activity Sunday. No activity Monday morning, so I figured she was a goner. I bought a new vial today, should be here Wednesday. So I get home, and go figure. Starting to show signs of life. Oh well, I’ll add the new vial to the starter and hopefully have enough yeast to brew this weekend.

Point of this post? Don’t give up on your yeast, it might just surprise you with its resilience! Just count on stepping up a few times if you have a culture this old…

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Funny you post this. Last weekend I brewed and found a pack of US-05 dated 12/2010. I thought I have nothing to lose and pitched it in a starter in the evening. Woke up the next day to clearly visible activity. Couldn’t believe it. Started right up!

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Yeah, I’ve been proving this to myself, many times over. I find that under a nice beer cap and kept very chilly, I’ve had mine start up after 6 months. I haven’t gone past 5th generation, yet, with the first fresh yeast, built up and saved a portion, you can go for quite some time before you need to say good bye to the exhausted little buggars…Sneezles61

Hell I have a lager yeast I’m on 6 or 7 generations hasn’t failed yet started it 2 yrs ago. I don’t always brew with it so sometimes it sit 4 months or more. This bock I have going it started percolating overnight and after 7 days it’s just starting to slow. 34/70@49

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Thanks Brew Cat, no I don’t feel all alone with the way my yeast is being treated, or should I say neglect… Sneezles61