I thought I would find past talk about this but nothing came up in a search.
I have a pack of WY1469 with best buy date of June 2023. I have used packs a couple months past date with just an SNS starter successfully. I would like to use this in a bitter later this week if it is viable. I think the thing to do would be make a starter with it tonight or tomorrow and if it is viable save the slurry from that and make a new SNS starter timed to pitch in the wort when I brew.
thoughts?
I would bet that it has viable cells and can be stepped up from a starter. The question is whether one step is sufficient or both as you planned. Given that it is going into a bitter, the ABV may be low enough to justify just one step to the starter going into the 5 gallon batch. SNS starters are timed for high krausen with the understanding that they are active at that point and don’t typically need to step up further, except in extraordinarily high gravity worts…
Give it a go and try to time the pitch for high krausen (of the starter - perhaps starting the day or night before brew day) and you should be ok.
I once used a pack of 3787 3 years past date. A bit slow to take off in the starter, but worked great. I did a one step SNS.
ive used two few month old whitelabs starters with no problem. i did the step up thing though. it was wlp001 and some other i forget
I raid the expired yeast bin at my LHBS all the time. I’ve propped up packs that were six months old with no problem.
Your plan makes sense. You can probably get away with one starter for a lower ABV beer but the starter might take a few extra days to take off. If you’re set on using a SNS starter, probably want to make a starter to wake up the yeast beforehand and then make your SNS starter as you normally would.
I believe those who say it will be fine with one step but am figuring that if I do a first step sooner I can confirm viability and not risk being without yeast on brew day and also I suspect the second step will be more reliable in terms of timing high krausen with wort at pitching temperature.
It matters a lot how it was stored. A yeast pack months past the “best by” date that has been kept refrigerated the whole time is more likely to be good than one within the “best by” date that has been exposed to heat.
Agreed. It has been in the fridge this whole time and wasn’t mailed in hot weather.
I know it’s irrelevant if you are going to step this up, but out of curiosity, what is the condition of the package? Is it still completely flat?
I always get a bit uneasy when I receive a Smack Pack that isn’t completely flat and is impossible to corner and whack the little pouch inside. That doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally. I know I shouldn’t worry about it, but I like to see that Pack expand and be certain of viability. I mean, if they didn’t want me sweating this, they shouldn’t put the nutrient pouch in there in the first place. 
It is completely flat.
I ended up changing my mind and just doing one step but assume it would take longer. Either way I had a packet of s-04 in case. Turns out, unless it was really slow, it wasn’t viable. I ended up pitching the s-04 after it did nothing in 36 hours.
Timely because I have four packs of yeast … two are Omega Bayern and two are Omega Mexican that have 2023 dates. I have two of each because the woman who runs my supply house knew the dates were questionable. I’ll make starters with two packs and watch (and smell) for viability. It’s rare when I can’t resurrect some older yeast.
Actually the starter eventually, well, started. It just took like 60 hours. I am storing the slurry and hopefully using later this week.
Nice.
I just went and checked these packs I have. The Mexican has a date of March 2023 and the Bayern is May 2023. I’m not concerned but I didn’t think they were that old. I’ll be firing up the Mexican Lager in the next couple of weeks.
Did that starter beer taste good? I’m always paranoid and taste and smell my starters to make sure they don’t have flavors I might associate with an infection of wild yeast or other microbes.
It’s probably fine. Just curious.
It’s still in the glass jug, I was going to check it and transfer the slurry tonight.