I collected my London III yeast I used from my first attempt of a NE Style IPA back in mid August. It has been sitting in the back of my fridge in 4 mason jars. Each mason jar contains about 1 oz of yeast cake that formed at the bottom of the jar. I'm looking to brew another batch of this NE IPA. Can I re pitch the yeast? expired? and I'll be repitching this into a 1 gal. batch instead of the 5 gal batch I originally did. My local homebrew shop suggested decanting one of the jars and shaking it up and repitch it. No need to make a starter (starter for the 5gal.). Thoughts??? Thanks all!!!
At that age I would make a starter and see how it smells. You might be alright as is but making a starter is cheaper if you have to throw it out
I wouldn't try this without making a starter (unless you have some emergency dry yeast on hand). It may not be viable after 4 months. I have done this without a starter up to 2 months myself, but I've never been brave enough to try longer.
I would make a starter and give yourself a couple extra days. I have used yeast that old but I find that it takes an extra day or two for the starter to reach high krausen.
@scottakelly @mugs1789 So your suggestions is to make a starter (1/2 cup DME and 2 cups of water) even though I'm doing a 1 gallon batch? Can you ever pitch TO much yeast? I usually do a starter for a 5.gal batch.
I had a vial of pilsner yeast that was ~9 months old sitting in the back of the fridge. I "woke it up" with a 1L starter that took nearly two days to get going. Once it finished out, pitched into a 3.5L starter and it took off like a rocket and was done in a day. Pitched into the beer and it worked very quickly and no issues at all! Starter is required, for sure!
My sentiments exactly. If all of the yeast is dead it doesn't matter the size of the batch. Making a starter is being done mainly to make sure the yeast is viable.
There may be a risk of off flavors with old yeast, too. I tried to step up that old Cali lager yeast I was whining about last month. After several days It drove the starter gravity down from 1.040 to 1.020, and the starter smelled brothy. I assumed I had a good amount of dead cells and probably not enough live cells to ferment the 3 gallon batch I had planned. I tossed it. I might have been able to play Doctor and isolate and propagate good cells, but who has the time? I ended up going with a dry yeast option.
