I went to check my vial of wlp005 last night as I may be needing it for a starter this weekend as the Bedford yeast I got does not appear to be kicking off. Long story short a vial dated Jan 2014, is solid in the vial, there is no wort to shake the yeast back into suspension. Fair play to Shane At HBC, he's replacing straight away, he's not seen this before, have any of you guys? It smells fine, but I'm not happy with pitching it.
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I haven't used WLP005 but I made a starter with a vial of WLP007 last week and the yeast was stuck like a rubber pancake to the bottom of the vial. Not sure if the 005 floccs as hard as 007 but it took some welly to shake it into suspension.
Though it sounds like a production issue in your case if there was no wort/liquid in the vial. So I presume the vial was only half-full then?
Yeah, it looked normal except no liquid at all. A strange one for sure.
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Luckily it looks like my Bedford has kicked off. I should get a brew in after all.
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Sounds a bit like the WLP037 I had recently. I made a starter up no problem - haven't tasted the beer yet....