# White labs calculating viability from date?



## Truman42 (11/2/13)

Just got myself a vial of white labs British Ale yeast. i was going to use yeast calc to work out my starter required and noticed that WL dont have a production date like WY does but instead just have a best before date.

I know this yeast has just arrived at my LHBS so I can probably just calculate viabililty from a month back as a rough guess (Assuming it was made a month ago and then shipped from the US etc)

But what do you guys normally do to calculate viability with this yeast when you have no idea what its production date was? Its best before date is May 16 2013.
Is there a way you can work it back from there, knowing how many months WL put on their yeast from date of production?


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## DUANNE (11/2/13)

i think its written on the vial but it is four months from the production date to the best before date.


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## Truman42 (11/2/13)

BEERHOG said:


> i think its written on the vial but it is four months from the production date to the best before date.


LOL...Yeh Ok im a dickhead. h34r: 

I saw that It says "Best before date is 4 months after bottling"

I thought it meant drink your beer within four months of bottling. Must admit when I read that I thought thats a bloody strange thing to put on there. Why the hell would I need to drink my beer within four months of bottling..

Perhaps it should say "best before date is 4 months after production"

Cheers for that.


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## micblair (11/2/13)

where did you get the WLP vial from?


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## Truman42 (11/2/13)

Core Brewing Concepts. Link in the advert at the top of the page. He lives around the corner from me so grabbed it tonight on the way home. He does a good range of WL AND WY. 

No affiliation etc etc


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## Truman42 (12/2/13)

I shook and opened up this vial yesterday arvo and it hissed and some of the yeast squirted out. Probably lost a cap full on the bench. I then pitched it into a 2 litre starter and noticed that there didnt seem to be much yeast in my flask. It also seemed to sort of coagulate in the starter and had a small layer on top and another layer of yeast particles sitting on the bottom.
I put it on the stir plate and this morning there was still only a small layer of foam on top, not a proper layer of krausen and certainly not what Im used to when pitching Wyeast. I usually have my wyeast starters pushing krausen out under the foil on the flask.

I know a Wyeast packet has more volume but according to the WL vial there should have been 75-150 billion cells so certainly the same amount that is in a Wyeast packet.

Is it the lack of an activator in the WL that causes the yeast to take off a lot slower than a Wyeast?


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## pk.sax (12/2/13)

Chill out, it'd be right.

Also, now you know not to shake or warm up that vial before opening


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## kahlerisms (12/2/13)

Truman said:


> I put it on the stir plate and this morning there was still only a small layer of foam on top, not a proper layer of krausen and certainly not what Im used to when pitching Wyeast. I usually have my wyeast starters pushing krausen out under the foil on the flask.


I thought krausen was a sign of alcohol production and something you tried to avoid in your starters?


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## pk.sax (12/2/13)

That is correct, but what is also mistaken for a krausen sometimes is the foam that CO2 pushes out. Also, eventually the yeast is gonna run out of oxygen or nutrients and krausen in there.


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## kahlerisms (12/2/13)

practicalfool said:


> That is correct, but what is also mistaken for a krausen sometimes is the foam that CO2 pushes out. Also, eventually the yeast is gonna run out of oxygen or nutrients and krausen in there.


Ah shit. you just reminded me that I was supposed to put my starter in the fridge to settle out this morning. Oh well


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