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Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:08 pm
by Penny Lane
Hallo
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 (

)?
Thank you!
Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:17 pm
by 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 I'm fairly sure that until recently I was successfully using a tin of bread yeast that was years out of date.
Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:28 pm
by 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 I'm fairly sure that until recently I was successfully using a tin of bread yeast that was years out of date.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
Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:31 pm
by 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
(This will actually be my first time using wine yeast to make wine, I usually use bread yeast lol!)

Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:34 pm
by 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?
Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:40 pm
by 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 I'm still a little bitter at wasting booze, which didn't ferment owing to using out of date yeast

Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:11 pm
by 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*


Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:40 pm
by 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. :))
Re: Out of date yeast...
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:50 pm
by 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... ;)