[Bklmt2000]

and is currently on the stirplate now.  Fingers crossed it's still alive.

I'd ordered some smackpacks early last summer from Ritebrew, and the aforementioned 2124 somehow got marooned in the fridge and forgotten about until I saw it yesterday and read the date.  About 2-3 hours after smacking, it seemed like it was inflating, at least a little, so I whipped up a flask of starter wort and it's been spinning since yesterday afternoon.

If this ends up being a dud, no biggie, and a life lesson learned for me, but hopefully it's still viable.

[goose]

What was the date on the pack?

[Bklmt2000]

Around June 19th, 2019.  It was fresh at the time I ordered it, I just forgot about it in the fridge.

[coonmanxdog]

Last year I ran into a completely dead smack pack for the first time ever. It never swelled up and when I pitched it there was nothing at all. It should have been still good according to the date but it was not. The brew shop gave me a different and newer pack and that did take off.

[Village Taphouse]

I've had this happen and I think it's easier with Wyeast than anything else because you can smack it, leave it to warm a little and see how viable it is.  If you see activity (could take a week at that age) then you can make a starter and over that time you can eventually give it the sniff test.  If it passes, I wouldn't be surprised if it made good beer.  But I would be alert... just the look of the yeast can tell you things and the activity in a starter can tell you if its sluggish, in poor health, etc.  I would probably add nutrient to the starter and some pure O2 as well assuming it's gasping for oxygen at that point.  Making a starter today with 940 that has a date of May 2020 so I assume it will be active by the weekend.  Cheers B2000.

[denny]

4 days ago I smacked a pack of WY3522 with a date of 3/27/19.  Its now fully expanded and Ill make a starter with it today.  The old ROT for Wyeast is to give it one day per month of age to expand.

[Bklmt2000]

I've had this happen and I think it's easier with Wyeast than anything else because you can smack it, leave it to warm a little and see how viable it is.  If you see activity (could take a week at that age) then you can make a starter and over that time you can eventually give it the sniff test.  If it passes, I wouldn't be surprised if it made good beer.  But I would be alert... just the look of the yeast can tell you things and the activity in a starter can tell you if its sluggish, in poor health, etc.  I would probably add nutrient to the starter and some pure O2 as well assuming it's gasping for oxygen at that point.  Making a starter today with 940 that has a date of May 2020 so I assume it will be active by the weekend.  Cheers B2000.

Good advice, many thanks Brother Ken.  I did add some yeast nutrient to the starter wort I made yesterday, and while I don't have the best eyesight in the world, I think I saw a thin krausen line on the starter flask this morning.  And as I mentioned yesterday, the smackpack did swell a little bit, so I do have some confidence that this yeast isn't totally dead.  I'll give it until tomorrow morning to stir, then into the lager fridge to settle out.  If it looks ok, I'll decant and do another starter, and if it looks off, it'll get dumped.

[Bklmt2000]

A quick follow-up: took the starter off the stirplate and into the lager fridge yesterday morning.

Looked at it just now, and perhaps my memory is off, but this yeast seems to be taking longer than normal to settle out.  I saw that Wyeast says 2124 is a low-med floccer, and it's been several years since I last used this yeast, but I though it was more flocculent than that.

Will probably do one more smaller step-up starter next week (decanting the spent liquid and topping up w/ fresh wort) and see how it behaves.  Worst-case, I'm out a few more days and some older DME that I wanted to use up anyway.

[Village Taphouse]

Does it smell okay?  I'm not sure I would expect it to be on its best behavior (it's probably mad at you for forgetting it ) so whether it flocs right now or not may not be the biggest concern.  If it looks and smells okay I feel like that's the first step.  I once had something like 1028 or maybe 1968 that was about a year past its date.  I smacked it and it swelled a little bit so I got a starter ready.  When I opened the pack, it was quite stinky (slightly sewer-like) and really dark.  No, I did not continue with the starter.    Good luck and happy brewing B2000.