I know I know! Last week we talked about using old yeast from a dry packet. Well this week I share my experience and follies with old yeast and frozen yeast. I finally brewed my first batch for 2015, but things didn’t go as planned.

Flander’s Red and a new brewing area. I had the ingredient in the garage waiting for most of the winter; back when most of my stuff was still in the garage for brewing. I wanted to get both of my cars in the garage this winter so I was able to appropriate some space in my finished basement as a brew area. Complete with sink and more fridge space (stay tuned for a brew space tour soon).

I figured I’d use BIAB to put the Flander’s Red ingredients to good use. I had gotten the grains just about ready to mash. While I was waiting for the water to finally come to temp I started looking for my yeast pack. I had a WYeast Roselare blend pack somewhere but couldn’t find it. I looked in all three fridges in the house. With dread I finally looked in the freezer. I found my frozen Roselare underneath a couple packages of whole hops. I must have moved the whole lot of it as a unit when I transferred my brewing setup from the garage to the basement. The yeast was put away with the hops in the freezer.

Bummed I went to plan B. I had a mason jar of Saison yeast and Brett Clausennii slurry from last years big brew. That beer was brewed in May, the yeast harvested likely at the end of May maybe early June. I kept it because I had intended to brew another saison, but never did. Out of curiosity, I thawed the pack of frozen Roselare and poured it into the 1500mL starter I made for the saison blend.

The starter obviously worked because I could tell by visual inspect and color change in the starter that the yeast I put in there did indeed multiply and grow. Who knows if any of the microbes from the Roselare got started. The whole thing got pitched the next day into the Flander’s Wort (No chill brewing so I had time for a starter to go 24hrs). The next day the 5 gallon batch was bubbling alone nicely. I’ll be racking to glass carboy soon. That way I can visually monitor the presence of a pellicle which will tell me if the Roselare blend has come back to life.

Time will only tell. I might pitch a new Roselare pack and a some sour beer bottle dregs in there too. But it might be fun to let it go and see if the frozen stuff had any life in it. I read on the WYEAST website some information about frozen smack packs that makes me thing it just might make it.

Lets keep our fingers crossed!
BREW ON!