Ouch. 300% fatality

[BenB]

So I was going to brew tomorrow. Hadn't decided on a beer but had a couple of 1028 in the fridge so made up a 2L starter and smacked one of them.

Nothing. Chucked it in the starter anyway which confirmed it was DOA.

Pitched it into the starter and six hours later gave up and smacked another. Not a sausage. Eventually switched around my planned brew and smacked a Belgian White. Again, no swelling of the pack and nothing happening on the stir plate. All these packs had been kept in the fridge at 2 degrees as soon as they arrived.

So looks like I'm gardening tomorrow.

All of these packs were only a couple of months old. Teaches me for ordering on a Thursday- shipped Friday, only delivered Monday. I wouldn't have been surprised with some loss but 300%!?!?!?!

[Kyle_T]

You do realise they can take up to 4 days to swell fully...

[Goulders]

And 6 hours isn't long in a starter. There is a lag time and it can take longer to get going. I've used White Labs but never Wyeast before. Is this your first go with liquid yeast?

[Oakey22]

I have found the wyeast to take a while to get going too, although you should see something in 6 hours in the pack

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[BenB]

I've used liquid yeasts exclusively since returning to brewing five years back and this is the first time I've had a failure- normally the packs swell after about 3 hours and the starter kicks off almost immediately. If I had been waiting for the pack to swell fully I could understand nothing happening after 6 hours or so but.... I kept on adding the "new" yeasts to the same starter so when I ditched it the first lot of 1028 had had 6 hours to swell and almost 24 hours in the starter wort. The 2nd and 3rd hadn't had quite as long but for me a combination of no significant pack swelling and not even a hint of bubbling in the starter makes me think I had pretty much 0% viability. There was zero carbon dioxide smell from the wort and no bubbles (even tiny ones).

I really think they were brown bread.

[Goulders]

Did the packets have batch numbers? If so you could always report it and let whomever you bought the yeast from know

[BenB]

I could. But they're long in the bin. If it was just the 1028 I'd think a duff batch. But the dubel yeast as well makes me reckon it was shipping losses. Oh well. Delivery to work it is.....