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Author Topic: "Best By" Date  (Read 4425 times)

Offline Steve Ruch

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #15 on: September 03, 2021, 09:02:18 am »
The "best buy" date is a date guarantee.  A culture can remain in viable form for a long time after the "best by" date.  However, after a point, it becomes a case of resurrecting the culture than propagating it.  That kind of scenarios is can be difficult.

I contacted Lallemand about this and that's exactly what they told me.  Their dry yeast remains in good shape far past the best by date.
Absolutely, the last best bitter I brewed was with yeast dated Nov 2016. It turned out good.
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Offline neuse

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #16 on: September 03, 2021, 09:27:24 am »
I buy yeast from Williams Brewing. I’ve noticed that when I receive it, Lallemand yeast is normally much closer to the Best By date than Fermentis yeast. I’m thinking maybe Lallemand plans on a shorter allowable time than Fermentis. It’s possible that the Lallemand yeast is a much slower seller for Williams Brewing than Fermentis, but I doubt it.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe my experience isn’t typical.

Offline BrewNerd

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2021, 09:05:32 am »
You folks are brewers and mind readers.. I was arguing about this just the other day.

Personally I like the idea of a packaging AND best by date on the yeast. As many others mentioned, viability would be king/ queen in that scenario.

If there's enough functional cells then the beer will still happen. When in doubt, just make a starter. Even with.. (gasp) dry yeast.

Offline denny

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2021, 09:47:14 am »
You folks are brewers and mind readers.. I was arguing about this just the other day.

Personally I like the idea of a packaging AND best by date on the yeast. As many others mentioned, viability would be king/ queen in that scenario.

If there's enough functional cells then the beer will still happen. When in doubt, just make a starter. Even with.. (gasp) dry yeast.

Why?  It already has all the cells and nutrients you need.
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Offline Richard

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #19 on: September 06, 2021, 12:02:36 pm »
It seems the yeast manufactures are now placing a "Best By" date on the packaging as opposed to the "Made on" or "Packaged On" date that I'm use to seeing.  I fully understand the reasoning.  However, how is the age of the yeast entered into BeerSmith?  I believe BeerSmith calculates yeast viability based on "Packaged On" date.  So, I have been simply backing up the "Best By" date by 6 months and using that date in BeerSmith.  But is that the best way to calculate the age and viability?  I'm curious what other brewers are doing?
If you are using White Labs yeast you can get the QC report for your batch, which will tell you the date that the batch was measured. It is usually within a few days of 6 months before the "Best Before" date. Go to https://yeastman.com/info and enter your lot #.
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Offline KellerBrauer

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2021, 05:46:12 am »
It seems the yeast manufactures are now placing a "Best By" date on the packaging as opposed to the "Made on" or "Packaged On" date that I'm use to seeing.  I fully understand the reasoning.  However, how is the age of the yeast entered into BeerSmith?  I believe BeerSmith calculates yeast viability based on "Packaged On" date.  So, I have been simply backing up the "Best By" date by 6 months and using that date in BeerSmith.  But is that the best way to calculate the age and viability?  I'm curious what other brewers are doing?
If you are using White Labs yeast you can get the QC report for your batch, which will tell you the date that the batch was measured. It is usually within a few days of 6 months before the "Best Before" date. Go to https://yeastman.com/info and enter your lot #.

This is exactly what I’m looking for!  I never knew this information was so readily available.  Thanks!
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Offline Bel Air Brewing

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2021, 05:53:28 am »
Does Wyeast not stamp the packaging date on their yeast?

Online purduekenn

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Re: "Best By" Date
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2021, 12:15:38 pm »
It's my understanding that they don't have a manufacturing date on the packages. My packages have a best if used by date. For example I bought a package of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale yeast on April 20, 2021 and it has a "Best if Used By: 02 Oct 2021" stamped on the package. I thought the manufacture date is 6 months before the best if used by date.