"Best By" Date

[KellerBrauer]

@richard

@KellerBrauer

It seems the yeast manufactures are now placing a “Best By” date on the packaging as opposed to the “Made on” or “Packaged On” date that I’m use to seeing.  I fully understand the reasoning.  However, how is the age of the yeast entered into BeerSmith?  I believe BeerSmith calculates yeast viability based on “Packaged On” date.  So, I have been simply backing up the “Best By” date by 6 months and using that date in BeerSmith.  But is that the best way to calculate the age and viability?  I’m curious what other brewers are doing?

If you are using White Labs yeast you can get the QC report for your batch, which will tell you the date that the batch was measured. It is usually within a few days of 6 months before the “Best Before” date. Go to https://yeastman.com/info and enter your lot #.

This is exactly what I’m looking for!  I never knew this information was so readily available.  Thanks!

[TXFlyGuy (Bel Air Brewing)]

Does Wyeast not stamp the packaging date on their yeast?

[purduekenn]

It’s my understanding that they don’t have a manufacturing date on the packages. My packages have a best if used by date. For example I bought a package of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale yeast on April 20, 2021 and it has a “Best if Used By: 02 Oct 2021” stamped on the package. I thought the manufacture date is 6 months before the best if used by date.