Dark Yeast! Is It Ok?
- Thread starter clay
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Have had this problem with multiple packs of 2565 and 3068 from G&G this year. Does it smell a bit off, noticed that a slight off off aroma here when checking the stir plate, seemed to behave reasonably normally when making starters, but all performed pretty lazily in the fermenter, low AA%. All the packs were pretty fresh, have had a number of emails back and forth with Wyeast, their only suggestion is low viability yeast. I suspect maybe storage or transport misstreatment (maybe high temps).
Hmmm, I've noticed recently with some of my longer held stocks of yeast under fluid in the fridge that they do tend to darken with age. The intuitive answer is that they yeast are slowly using viability with more and more of them dieing off. Someone on here will back that up with some science yes..........?
Duff
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Thanks for your responses guys
I could understand the yeast maybe being off if it was harvested by me prior but you would think it be OK being a new smack pack. As Screwtop said, it may have been handled/stored wrongly at some stage.
Will have to keep an eye (and nose) on the starter. Lucky I've got another one of Ross' Weizen yeasts in the fridge
The annoying thing is I only use a liquid yeast for hefes nowadays... Nottingham and US05 for most other brews.
I could understand the yeast maybe being off if it was harvested by me prior but you would think it be OK being a new smack pack. As Screwtop said, it may have been handled/stored wrongly at some stage.
Will have to keep an eye (and nose) on the starter. Lucky I've got another one of Ross' Weizen yeasts in the fridge
The annoying thing is I only use a liquid yeast for hefes nowadays... Nottingham and US05 for most other brews.
Clay,
Did the pack swell normally when you smacked it ?
This is the best indication that you will get on how the viability of the yeast was.
Yeh, no problem there, was just really a dark brown colour when I poured it into the starter.
Happy to report I received a call early yesterday from John at G&G. Worked through all of the possibilities, yeast storage, starter and pitching procedures. Had tried direct pitching, 1L and 2L starters, smacking and not smacking before making the starter, varied pitching and ferm temps etc. John asked me to take the SG of the starter on the stirplate, was only down from 1042 to 1032 in 4 days, no good says John we'll replace it. G&G sell and use quite a lot of Wyeast and have not had problems with the yeast, unfortunately it looks as though Apost have let down the supply chain. G&G send my orders in overnight bags which then take 48 hrs to arrive :huh: Obviously there are time and temperature issues during transit, quite out of the control of G&G. Earlier this year one of three smackpacks arrived with the inner burst, it had swollen and when I opened it the yeast stunk. G&G had wrapped the three smack packs in bubble wrap and put them in an overnight bag, somehow Apost managed to stab one of the outer packs right in the proverbial, enough to rupture the inner. To save on shipping I generally order extra packs to use over the next few months. Unfortunately from now on I will have to order for use as fresh is best where treatment during shipping may affect the viability of the product arriving at the door. A big thanks to John and G&G, great customer service, unfortunately Apost have let us all down. John is posting my order today, hoping for a cooler Melbourne day than yesterdays predicted 37. G&G now pack yeast with cool cells, hope this offers some protection, lets see how long it takes Apost to deliver an overnight satchel to me this time.
Screwy
Received the order today, Apost got it here overnight, no damage, G&G packed two techni ice saches in with the yeast and it was still cool. GREAT, let the 3068 reach room temp, just smacked it, into a 2L starter once swollen. Wort waiting in the cube.
