Out of date yeast

[MrRook]

My last batch was fermented by a Muntons dated Nov 2016.

I normally only buy enough yeast to ferment the beers I have planned for the next six months, but at one point I found a deal and bought a bunch of Muntons.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

“A bunch of Muntons”

Can you say that on here

 

[Tombo]

Before I went to all grain I found an extract Yorkshire bitter kit that had a best before date stamped on it of 2005 (around 14-15 years past). I brewed it with the packaged yeast (made into a starter to get it going) and it turned out fine so I suspect that yours at only a couple of months or so past its best will be too.

 

[MrRook]

“A bunch of Muntons”

Can you say that on here

Only with a Welsh accent so no one understands what you're saying.

 

[clib]

It's a tribute to how successful White Labs and Wyeast have been in telling people what English yeast "are", but you only have to look at the Brewlab collection to see how many are phenolic. But eg WLP037 Yorkshire Square is a complete clove monster if you don't aerate it, Lost & Grounded have used it to make a "Yorkshire Saison".

The phenolics in commercial bitters are pretty subtle, you have to look for them - I suspect that's because the square system suppresses the phenolics through aeration. But I've certainly picked them up at low levels in good pints of cask Harveys (whose yeast came from John Smiths) and Sam Smiths. Not sure about Taylors though.

Also worth noting that T-58 is a close relative of Windsor and S-33, it's best thought of as a (weakly) phenolic version of those two. So don't expect great attenuation.

Those Americans seem to like redefining the world in their own terms. Something we have also been guilty of. Now we have them selling our yeast back to us with their own version of what they are and how to use them. "Ferment low or you will get bubblegum". Defining more and more beer styles according to their own understanding of what a style is. Stuff like that. In response we let our narky old buggers like Ron P and Martyn C have an occasional rant. :)

Anyway I really hit reply to ask a question. There are English yeasts that ferment a bit erratically and can continue to ferment, or re-awaken, in bottles or casks. Are these all diastaticus? Or is there something else that causes this behaviour? We see this particularly in dark beers that can overcarbonate in bottles, so maybe it's about the relationship between yeast and malts?