What is the shelf life of White Labs yeast?

Quick Answer: 4 Months Long Answer: Yeast is a living organism. As such, it needs to exist in certain conditions to survive. Dry yeast can stay alive for about one year, but yeast in liquid form-even though it's superior in taste and performance is more perishable. After 30 days in the vial, the viability (the percentage of living cells) of White Labs yeast is still up at (75-85%), which is very high for liquid yeast. Yeast that is harvested after a homebrew fermentation will typically have a viability of less then 50% after 30 days. White Lab's high viability of yeast cells is due to the very robust health of the yeast entering the vial as well as the excellent nutrient content of their proprietary liquid added at packaging. Yeast used after four months is usually still fine, but a better strategy is to create a yeast starter to avoid a long lag time between pitching the yeast and the onset of wort fermentation.

All contents copyright 2024 by MoreFlavor Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.