Without getting into a long story as to why this happened, I just opened a brew order from an e-tailer that has been sitting at room temp for 4 days, plus 2 days in transit. I’m concerned about the integrity of the pellet hops and the dry yeast (us-05). Anyone ever have any bad experiences with this much time at warm temperatures?
Both the hops and yeast are in the refrigerator now. The yeast and half the hops will be used this weekend, the other half next weekend. I’d hate to waste the ingredients, but would hate to waste my time even more.
I don’t think any of us can avoid this sort of thing really. We don’t know how long things are unrefrigerated on the way from manufacturers or distributors to retailers. Assuming the shipment never got hot enough to kill the yeast (a fairly safe assumption,) and assuming the hops were properly packaged (sealed in the usual oxygen barrier type pouch, vacuum sealed or nitrogen purged,) I wouldn’t worry. A few days is fine, long term storage at room temperature is where the trouble is.
Yeah, no worries. OTOH, I just received 2 packs of Hornindal liquid yeast that was in transit 5 days! (Hint: order early in the week, so it doesn’t sit in Illinois for the UPS weekend holiday). Trying to revive this stuff now in a 3 liter starter. Fingers crossed!
Speaking of abusing this yeast, I placed the little packages they were giving away at the conference into my wallet and they have been there ever since.
I thought it was a stick they stir with, but same idea. The dried residue on the wood can last indefinitely – like till next year’s brewing – and be perfectly viable. Reminds me of an old technique of smearing a thin layer of sourdough starter on a sheet of paper or a kitchen towel and letting it dry out. Crumbled up months later it will go to work, no need to keep feeding it. I once heard of someone whose ancestors similarly brought over dried yogurt cultures on a rag from Scandinavia. These microbes are far tougher than we give them credit for. All the more reason to ignore cell counts and viability estimates in calculators. As long as they are desiccated into suspended animation and haven’t been baked by excessive heat, they’ll find a way to survive. (Just ask NASA!)