Out of Date Whitelabs Yeast

[Binkie Huckaback]

I have a pack of Whitelabs liquid yeast which expired at the end of April. It's been kept in the fridge, so imagine it's not going to be completely unusable. As the pack is apparently enough for one batch, I wasn't going to make a starter, but as it's out of date, would that be advisable?

[Cobnut]

I see no reason why not. Likely there will be quite a few dead yeast cells, but otherwise it should be fine. Make a Starter and it should work lovely.

[PeeBee]

... I wasn't going to make a starter, but as it's out of date, would that be advisable?

Yes!

I wouldn't risk it without a starter even if within use-by date (using them out of date isn't a good habit to encourage!). I've recently completed two 20L batches from a single "smack-pack" getting on two months past best-before, three step starter over four days (it didn't really need the fourth day) with a calculated thirty billion cell overbuild which was kept back (kept cool) for a week before creating a single step starter over two days (it only needed one day). Both batches started strongly within twelve hours.

There is no magic to yeast starters, but many brewers put their trust in a belief of magic and stare at their lifeless brew until it crawls into action two or three days later.


Stepped starters: Start small volume (smaller with age) and try to keep each step within a day (don't wait until it's frothing over before moving to next step - an odd bubble or two in the early steps is enough). Three steps should do most marginally out-of-date packs. If reviving a really old pack (several months past best-before), think hard why you are doing it!

[Binkie Huckaback]

Thanks PeeBee