Yeast Crisis

[hoodie]

So I just made a 1 liter starter, pitched yeast, and then realized that the production date on the yeast is from Jan 08. Plugging this in to MrMalty, and the yeast is at 22% viability (Thanks LHBS). Therefore, I don't think my 1 liter starter is adequate for my 3.5 gal batch. I was planning on brewing tomorrow or Friday, What should I do?

-I would consider stepping it up, but I don't think I have enough time to let the yeast settle and decant all that extra wort.
-Should I just go buy some newer yeast and make another starter?

[Datamike]

So I just made a 1 liter starter, pitched yeast, and then realized that the production date on the yeast is from Jan 08. Plugging this in to MrMalty, and the yeast is at 22% viability (Thanks LHBS). Therefore, I don't think my 1 liter starter is adequate for my 3.5 gal batch. I was planning on brewing tomorrow or Friday, What should I do?

-I would consider stepping it up, but I don't think I have enough time to let the yeast settle and decant all that extra wort.
-Should I just go buy some newer yeast and make another starter?

Yes. That shit is ancient!

Michael

[spiderwrangler]

I'm assuming you mean January 8, 2013? If so, it's not THAT old... it would be within the 'Best By' for a White Labs product (4 months from production date). It may warrant stepping up, but there should be plenty of good yeast to get a starter going.

[Datamike]

That's one reason I prefer Wyeast over White Labs. If you use the smack packs regularly, you can get a good feel for the yeast viability based on how quick it swells up/how swollen it gets. The prevents you from wasting a starter on junk yeast.

Michael

[hoodie]

Beersmith has the viability @ 40%? The package swelled within 3 hrs, even though when I opened it, the nutrient pack didn't seem broken (I suck at that ). The starter took off as usual. However, since I don't have enough time to step up, and I have no real way of knowing how much yeast I have, I'm just going to make another starter. I'd rather pitch the right amount of yeast than risk underpitching. Ain't nobody got time for that!

[brewinhard]

If your starter took off fairly quickly and fermentation looked solid, I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially with only a 3.5 gallon batch. What is the OG of your beer? If it is of moderate strength (1.050 or so) I wouldn't stress about it. Depending on what type of yeast you are using you could always buy a dry yeast packet to augment the fermentation if your starter yeast does not take off (but I bet it will be just fine). If it does take off, then you will have an extra dry yeast packet for the future!