Wyeast Smacked but didn't Swell

[citizensnips]

Howdy all, last night I smacked a pack of 2206 Bavarian Lager, it didn't swell so I thought I'd give it till morning, still no dice. Anyway cut a long story short I thought what the hell and put it into a 2L starter. Sadly this yeast was from a January batch........I happened to buy from a different supplier and unfortunately their ingredients aren't as fresh as others, not a lot they can do about it....just don't get the turnover.......Anyway so this is my second time using liquid yeast and am not too sure what the protocol is. It smelled reasonable I guess, like a euro lager-ish. If it starts up and gets going is it still going to be as good a quality? just not the same as the original viability? Or should I turf it and just go the dried option instead?
Thanks

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

If it starts up I would step it up a couple of times before using it. I pitch 4 L starters for most of my lagers anyway.

My guess, is it will start, but might take a while. I would have started with a smaller than 2L starter as well.

Where did you keep the yeast? In the fridge?

 

[Judanero]

If it was packaged in January it will be a slow start if at all.

 

[citizensnips]

Yeah kept in the fridge, it's for a bock as well at around 6.3% or so. I was going to step it twice with 2L to hopefully have enough but maybe that won't even do. Damn old ingredients!

 

[QldKev]

What tempeture is the starter at, I would be pushing it into the low 20's until it wakes up

 

[citizensnips]

really a lager yeast? its been at about 12 or so.......so I should bump it up?

 

[manticle]

If you are going to be decanting and pitching slurry or pitching the slurry into a new starter (worth considering) then you can push the temp and oxygenation right up.

If pitching the lot, then go more gently but expect much less cell growth.

For this, I would be fermenting the starter out warmer as kev suggests and with lots of shaking/stirplate action, chilling, decanting into new starter wort, oxygenating again but at lower temps and once you see krausen - pitch into your wort.

 

[citizensnips]

Cheers for the recommendations, gave it a good shaking for about 2 minutes then moved it into a warm place, hopefully we see some action. I understand viability has decreased considerably but if I get the numbers back up (may even step it for a third time), will the actual quality of the yeast be still good? As in is it expected that the flavours and characteristics of the yeast remain the same?
Thanks again for the help
cheers

 

[manticle]

If you can build up the appropriate number of cells, you should expect decent results. Identical? Who can say that for a surety?

I'd be having a crack though.

 

[citizensnips]

Yeah didn't know if anyone would know for sure, just wanted to see if there was a general consensus on the matter. Obviously not, all good though, I'll definitely be having a crack.
Cheers moite

 

[citizensnips]

Just for anyone that may read this down the track....it finally started going properly this morning after having it at about 18degrees. So it took from thursday night until monday morning to get it to really kick off. That said I only had it at good temperatures the last day or two.
Cheers QldKev and Manticle for the advice.

 

[bradmccoy]

I bought a dud (Ringwood) smackpack about two months ago. It never came good. I ended up pitching something else I had sitting in the fridge from a previous brew.