Out of date yeast...

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Penny Lane
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Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219369Post Penny Lane »

Hallo :wave:

I just found a sachet of wine yeast and yeast nutrient in a drawer the best before dates on them are 22/07/10 for the yeast & 17/06/10 on the nutrient. Are they usable do you think or shall I chuck and buy new ( :pale: )?

Thank you!
"It's breaking the circle.
Going to work, to get money, to translate into things, which you use up, which means you go to work again, etc, etc.
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What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself."
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gregorach
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219374Post gregorach »

They should be perfectly usable. Possibly a little slower than ideal, but I'd be extremely surprised if they don't work at all. I'm fairly sure that until recently I was successfully using a tin of bread yeast that was years out of date.
Cheers

Dunc

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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219377Post okra »

gregorach wrote:They should be perfectly usable. Possibly a little slower than ideal, but I'd be extremely surprised if they don't work at all. I'm fairly sure that until recently I was successfully using a tin of bread yeast that was years out of date.
Totally agree, we ignore best buy dates. The same applies to seeds and although the germination rate reduces a percentage still germinate

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Penny Lane
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219378Post Penny Lane »

Ah fabulous! I can't afford the petrol to get to the shop to buy extras at the moment, as it is I'm hoping to swap some eggs for sterilizing tabs from a friend!

Thank you both very much :iconbiggrin:

(This will actually be my first time using wine yeast to make wine, I usually use bread yeast lol!)
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"It's breaking the circle.
Going to work, to get money, to translate into things, which you use up, which means you go to work again, etc, etc.
The Norm.
What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself."
- Tom Good, The Good Life.

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Nomada
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219379Post Nomada »

I wonder if maybe you could take a tiny bit out of the sachet and add some water and sugar to it and look for signs of life?
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contadina
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219387Post contadina »

I'd check it first as per Nomado's instructions. I'm still a little bitter at wasting booze, which didn't ferment owing to using out of date yeast :(

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Penny Lane
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219451Post Penny Lane »

Hmmm, good point, will do a tester. Would be awful to waste all that potential alcohol!

SusieGee wrote:Oh! *scrabbles around in bin to retrieve the May 2010 yeast deposited there this morning* :lol:
:laughing6:
"It's breaking the circle.
Going to work, to get money, to translate into things, which you use up, which means you go to work again, etc, etc.
The Norm.
What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself."
- Tom Good, The Good Life.

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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219560Post snapdragon »

I've just made bread with yeast (sealed) best before 2007, it's Absolutely Fine
I reckon it's just a sales tack, the tin of dried granular yeast i just found dated even earlier will be used when I've finished the pack. :))
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gregorach
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Re: Out of date yeast...

Post: # 219561Post gregorach »

Well, the viability of dried yeast does decline quite noticeably with age (I can probably find a formula to calculate this if required) but you can usually get away with much lower viability than is usually recommended - it just takes longer. Not that I'd dream of doing that sort of thing with my beer yeast, but then I'm something of an obsessive on that score... ;)
Cheers

Dunc

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