I just discovered that my Wyeast kolsch was activated in my fridge. I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve had the package for a couple of months. It’s not expired, and my local homebrew supply guy says it’s probably still viable. What’s your opinion, would you chance it?
Greg
I’d definitely do a starter, but honestly I’d do that even if it hadn’t swollen. I’ve brewed under similar circumstances, I usually pay a little extra attention to sanitization when I make the starter. Thins have usually turned out fine, but I do always have dry yeast as backup.
Great suggestion. Starter it is!
You will be just fine. I would probably make a starter as well. No worries.
Sometime back when I was playing with a microscope, I took a year old package of Wyeast that had somewhat swollen out of the fridge and did a cell count and viability test on it. I got over 99% viability, so I called Wyeast to see if that was even possible. They said absolutely.
Yeast are a lot heartier than we think. Usually, the older the yeast, the more time to wake from dormancy.
The problem for most of us is maintaining a clean enough environment that nothing else which grows faster takes hold first.
Since then, I’ve used lots of old yeast as a LHB used to give it to me free. My advice…make a starter and taste the decanted starter wort before you pitch. Do it even if the yeast is fresh. You’ll get used to the taste of green unhoped beer and will be able to easily identify when something is not right with the starter.
I’ve used smack packs as old as 3 1/2 years and all I had to do was make a 2 step starter. Nearly every pack of 1450 is swollen when I use it, but it still works great.