Thanks for the responses, prevented a possible nightmare for my first liquid yeast.
Next batch will be in 3 weeks, I have time to adjust.
Ordered Munich Classic as a backup, or possibly the one to use.
I was on the email list from https://www.atlanticbrewsupply.com/ to notify
me when Wyeast 3068 is back in stock, just got the email. May call them
to ask date on yeast, my guess it is fresh.
If 5 months old needs a starter, how many months wouldn’t ?
Don’t see liquid yeast in my future, prefer not adding additional processes.
Yes you could and no they aren’t, at least in any practical sense. If you’re going to use liquid yeast at all, you need to get comfortable making starters
I use a 5.3 gallon HDPE Speidel fermenter.
Can I use this for a starter ?
Put a liter of wort in, shake, put in yeast shake, wait till frothy, then
pour in remainder of wort ?
Yes, that will work. Ideally, the vessel must be at least 4 to 1 volume of the starter to assure reasonable O2 levels for the starter yeast, so go for it! if the starter is at or near high krausen, you should have no problems. I don’t think we know precisely when high krausen is reached, but it would be in a matter of just a few hours, typically. Some here make the SNS starter at the start of the brew day and pitch into their wort when the wort is down to pitching temperature; so the only other thing for you to consider is not “shocking” the yeast with a really cold wort…which you could attemperate by adding some of the cooled wort from the main batch slowly and a little at a time until it gets close to the main batch chilled temp before racking the whole of the main batch onto the starter in your Speidel.
You can do 2L starters if you want. I used to when I first began making starters but I found that for a 5 gallon batch a 1L starter was plenty. Less cost and faster boil/chill -win/win for me.
You also might consider complaining to the homebrew shop you bought it from. 5 months is technically expired. They shouldn’t be shipping anything older than 3 months and even with 3 months I’d make a starter.
I’ll add: My LHBS used to simply give me yeast that was that old.
A gallon pyrex with a screw on lid could be pretty expensive. You can boil in half that size and pour into a sanitized gallon glass apple cider jug after it is cooled. Not much extra effort, otherwise try an online scientific supply house and maybe e-Bay. I once had a 5 liter graduated cylinder that a friend gave me. A few brews in and I knocked it to the garage floor - that was that; I now know my limitations and don’t trust my heavy handedness with good, but fragile equipment. Apple jugs are cheap and pretty reliable, but you can’t boil in them, of course.
Good luck and if you find a source, let us all know.
I use 2 L large mouth mason jars - I do not boil in them but you could give them a boiling water bath if you are that stresses. I run mine through the dishwasher and sanitize them with StarSan. I use these fermentation lids below. FYI they work with stirplates too.
Once I had an order come up short from NB. They not only made my order right but they gifted me $50 in store credit. I told them all I needed was my order corrected — a simple 1 oz bag of hops — but they insisted. [emoji15]