With regular WLP vials a brand new vial has 100 billion cells. How many does a Brett (brett only) vial have? I ask because the vial doesn’t have the regular yeast cake in the bottom of the vial like their regular sacch. strains do. Their packaging date is four months before the best by date for sacch. strains. What is it with brett vials? It clearly isn’t 4 months because I just picked up a vial that has a best before date of 12/08/11.
As far as cell counts, this is from the White Labs website:
[quote]Q: I just bought one vial of brettanomyces brux WLP650. I have used White Labs “normal” ale yeast in the past and have noticed that there is usually a 1-2 inch pellet ( yeast cake) at the bottom of the tube. WLP650 has a very small pellet (1-2 millimeters) at the bottom. Is there still the same number of yeast cells in a vial of brettanomyces as saccaromyces?
A: This sounds normal, as we do not concentrate the brettanomyces. Therefore, you won’t see a thick layer in the tube. The cultures are generally 50 million cells/ml.
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I couldn’t find anything on the viability date, although I’m pretty sure Brett strains are hardier than Saccharomyces.
According to Jamil, the White Labs Brett and Bacteria products are produced 6 months before the best by date.