[rbclay]

Just wondering if anyone else has done something like this and what your results were...
 
I had 3 old (like 2011 old) packs of Wyeast in my fridge. West Yorkshire, Ringwood and London 1028.
 
Instead of throwing them out or starting each one individually, I put all of them together (without the smack pack wort- just the yeast) into a 400ml OG 1.035 starter and put it on a stir plate. This was just yesterday afternoon. If it looks like it has some growth, I'll step it up to a 1.5L starter.
 
Planning to make a dark mild with this when it looks like there is a decent volume of yeast.
 
Thoughts?

[klickitat jim]

I'd think they are toast now but you could give it a shot.

[morticaixavier]

should be fine. if the starter is active and you see growth. hard to say just how many cells you have but if you are doing a pretty low gravity brew it'll likely be fine.

[a10t2]

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I suspect that at this your viable cell counts are so low one strain will end up dominating.

[jamminbrew]

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I suspect that at this your viable cell counts are so low one strain will end up dominating.

A yeasty version of russian roullette?

[klickitat jim]

My money is on a super slow start that ends up being non of the above, and more wild that anything else. But I will proudly admit schoolage if I'm wrong

[HoosierBrew]

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I suspect that at this your viable cell counts are so low one strain will end up dominating.

A yeasty version of russian roullette?

Yep. I'd rather just buy new.

[corkybstewart]

It'll work.  Back in my poorer years I used to get the free vials of expired White Labs from a homebrew store.  Some would be 2 years old or older but still kept in the fridge(poor inventory management). I made starters with them and brewed great beer, but it took planning and a couple of weeks to build the starters.  Then they worked like any othervial of yeast.

[reverseapachemaster]

As long as you give yourself time to build up a sufficient yeast volume you will be fine.

[coastsidemike]

I've done this and have had it not turn out well.  I suggest tasting before pitching.  Its easier to simply buy fresh yeast.