it’s probably fine. there are so many cells (10’s or 100’s of billions) that have been kept carefully in their own specially engineered environment designed to preclude other organisms as much as possible.
That being said, are you willing to risk a batch? I would be, S.Cerv might not be.
You’re talking about a guy who spends a C-note on yeast strains that have almost no brewing data. I could be ordering and pitching a brewery contaminant for all I know. ;D
With that said, I have pitched six month-old crops without making a starter; however, it’s not something that I would recommend. I usually wake a four-month old crop up before pitching it. That way, the viable cells can be separated from the dead cells.
I’m definitely no microbiologist, but many of my jars get the “sniff test” when I pull them out of the fridge. First, they should look ok- no black spots, weird things, etc. And when you open it, it should smell like a yeasty beer smell. If there is any weird odor- sour, fecal, etc, but plain old “not right”- the jar should be discarded.
I try to use my jars relatively quickly, but sometimes they sit too long and I don’t have any pangs about tossing them if they aren’t right. It’s not scientific at all, but as a long time brewer sometimes just a “not right” feeling is as good as a microscope. Other times, well, no. But the sniff test will definitely tell you if it’s “off” without a microscope, as there is no mistaking severe problems (like ‘fecal’).
I think you’re right, I would recognize fecal… And not pitch
Most styles call for low to no shart aroma or flavor. Just sayin
Funny stuff. AB’s new slogan : “Our beer’s not sharty - we promise.”
Miller Lite: Great taste, less shart
This bring new meaning to Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.
Coors : Made from shart-free Rocky Mountain water. 
Molson Canadian: It Sharts Here
Guinness: out of the Shartness comes the light
Or it may be fine. Make a starter and find out.
Right.
As a very wise philosopher once said: “You’ll never know until you check it out…”
I was referred to this thread not too long ago when I asked a question about yeast rinsing and so I tried the new method of swirling the yeast with a little of the left over beer then decanting off once settled. It really worked great- it seems the washing process at best is just an extra unnecessary step and at worse may lead to other problems. I went ahead and made some fresh wort to feed it and it’s bubbling away in a flask ready to go for brew day in a week or two. Thanks for the good advice!
Awesome stuff huh?
Not picking on you, but its not a new method. If you think about it its the oldest method. Yeast have been storing themselves in whatever they have fermented since they first became yeast…
So I just bottled my milk stout and didn’t rinse. Now I have this and I’m not too sure what layers I should transfer to my mason jars. Can you help me figure it out? Thanks!!
Don’t know if it’d make a difference but the yeast used was Dannys favorite by wyeast
Personally, id dump it and start over. If I had to reuse it I would take a 100ml and build a starter.
Um…that’s “Denny”…
I can tell you where you went wrong. Your liquid to solid ratio is too low (it should be at least 1:1), which is why you did not achieve good separation. You left too little liquid in your fermentation vessel when you racked, resulting in a fairly thick slurry after swirling. The process works best when one leaves at least 1/4th of gallon of clear liquid behind with the break and yeast when racking. I would swirl the solids into solution, wait a few minutes for the heaviest particulate matter to settle, and carefully decant the thinnest fraction. The goal is not to attempt to obtain a squeaky clean crop, but more of a “clean enough” crop. I would also not attempt to “bank” slurry. There are better ways to bank yeast. Slurry should be approached as a short term way to hold yeast for one’s next batch.
A wise man once said we should figure things out for ourselves.
Wow. This thread just keeps going and going.
I do what Denny does, except I don’t use buckets. I use better bottles with the orange caps on them. The bottle and cap are sanitized before the beer goes in and I assume they stay that way. I haven’t had any contamination issues from pouring directly into a sanitized container. Been doing this for years.
I sometimes think we over-think things.