Frozen yeast!

[Tarp Town]

My kitchen fridge that also stores my White Labs vials went haywire and somehow managed to freeze some things, including 3 vials of yeast. I think the roomate turned it all the way up (or down) and the crisper drawer I keep them in is like ice now.

Is the yeast dead? Will it work out if I thaw it overnight or something? I can't find answers on White Labs website.

Thanks

[Crut]

if they froze solid, youre pretty much SOL.
they pretty much blew up. Support JP, order some more
-Crut

[Bugeater]

Before pitching them completely, try making up about 50 ml or so of 1.020 wort with some DME and pitch a vial into that to see if you get any activity at all. In a day or two, add another 500 ml. By this time you should get some activity if there are any live cells left at all. You may not see any activity other than an increase in cell volume at the bottom of your wort container so don't dispair if you don't see any bubbles.

Basically treat these the same as trying to culture a tiny amount of yeast from a bottle conditioned beer.

Wayne

[Tarp Town]

What about this scenario:

Would it be a bad thing to add it to an already made starter that hasn't started fermenting yet? I made a big starter and could use the frozen yeast in that, but I don't want to ruin it.

thanks for your help

[Bugeater]

You would never know if it were dead or not if you add it with another yeast. You don't really want to be adding a load of dead yeast to a beer.

If you are pretty sure it is dead, or don't want to mess with trying to culture the remaining live cells, just toss it in the boil. The boil will break it down and provide nutrients for the fresh yeast you will be adding after cooling. That's how I dispose of old questionable tubes or packs of yeast.

Wayne

[SacoDeToro]

Yeast is cheap enough - just ditch the frozen stuff and buy some new yeast to be sure. Freezing, when not done in the proper medium, such as glycerin almost always ruptures the yeast cell(s). Not much hope at this point for that vial.

[6thstreetbrewer]

I typically make a starter several days ahead so I can step it up, crash it and decant it. An Alt I made used a yeast starter that I crashed in the fridge. As you may know Alt yeast is not very floculant and it was still very cloudy the morning of the brew day so I decided I would stick it in the freezer for a little while. Well...4 hours later when I finally remebered the starter it was fairly well frozen and I was already 3/4 the way through the sparge. So I just took it out left it on the counter until it thawed, decanted and pitched as if nothing had happened. It took longer than usual to get any activity but then it fermented very well. Definitely not the optimal conditions for it but I was able to dodge the bullet on that one.

[Tarp Town]

I thawed it and pitched it into a small starter just to see what happens.

Already ordered a replacement vial.

Thanks