Dead Yeast

[HopRunner]

Well, this was a first for me. I bought a vial of WLP001 and attempted to make a starter as usual and the yeast were 100% dead. I got nothing, no CO2 or any other sign of yeast activity. Weird.

The vial was fresh and a long way from the expiration date. Besides it isn't like 001 sits on the shelf for very long.

I was suspicious when I opened the vial and there was no "pfft" and nothing foamed up. I went ahead and pitched it into a 2mL flask of cool sterile starter, aerated and put it on the stir plate. Next morning it was flat and no activity. I let it ride for a full 24 hours and still nothing.

I haven't made it back to the LHBS to see if they had any other problems with that shipment. In all my years of brewing I have never had a completely dead vile. We have a very good and very active LHBS so I don't think it was miss handled there.

Anyone else had this happen?

[Bugeater]

You sure it is really dead? Quite often I never see any active signs of fermentation in my starters. I usually stick it on the stir plate the evening before I brew. By the time I take a look at it the next morning, active fermentation is pretty much done. The way to tell it wasn't dead is to turn the stir plate off for a bit and see how much yeast settles out on the bottom. If there is no increase from what you pitched then you probably have dead yeast (assuming you let it go for 16-18 hours since pitching).

Wayne

[HopRunner]

I'm quite sure. I turn off the stir plate periodically and let the CO2 build up for a few minutes and then turn the plate back on. It gives me an indication of the level of yeast activity and besides it is kind of fun to watch the CO2 foam up a bit.

I pitched the yeast at 10:30am on Saturday expecting to be pitching it at about 3:00pm on Sunday. So, normally I check my yeast through out the day and in the morning I put the stir plate and the flask in the basement to cool and settle so I can pour off some of the spent wort prior to pitching. This time since there was never any activity I just dumped the contents of the flask down the drain.

I did every thing the same. Same bag of malt extract, same sanitation procedure, same pitching temp, same volumes, etc.

The only thing I remember that was different was that there didn't seem to be any pressure or activity in the vial when I opened it, and that IS unusual.

I didn't mash my grains so I can make a new starter and try again. I'm just bummed that I can't retry this weekend. The weekend after this one I'll be brewing again.

This is an American Pale Ale that I want to enter into a local competition so I want to be meticulous about it. I did have a package of 05 dry yeast in the fridge but I decided to wait and get it just right since this is a comp beer and not just a daily drinker...

Thanks Bugeater

[bashcraft]

My very first brew using liquid yeast, I had a vial of 001 that was dead. Still a month from the expiration, made a starter but it never took off after 48 hours. People told me I probably just missed the activity and at the time I didn't know any better so I pitched it. Nothing happened after 36 hours so I pitched dry yeast. It tasted OK, but you could tell something wasn't right.

[kace069]

I have had it happen twice! I don't remember what strains they were. I was also not as experienced of a brewer then and wasn't looking at expiration dates, so I don't know the story on that. This was all about 3 years ago.

Made me switch to Wyeast.

Of course when I started paying attention to expiration dates, the first vial the LHBS was gonna sell me expired the day before I got there.