Doh!

[chrismccull]

I ordered 5 vials of White Labs yeast from OBK and they were completely frozen during transit.  I assume that they are no good any more?

[fakr]

That's shitty.  it's really hard to ship liquid yeast in the winter time.  you never know.

I wouldn't throw them away, I'd suggest making a big starter (3-4 litres) to grow what's left.  I would assume there is only 10-20% liability remaining.

Maybe Thomas has more scientific information for you, like perhaps the length of time the yeast was frozen having an effect on viability.

[Richard]

If they froze solid it's likely there's very little left - as for a starter, at a bare minimum you'd need to step it or wild microbes will have a much better chance. Don't like to disagree with people directly but a starter that large is going to increase the chance of infection versus a smaller one.

[Chris Craig]

Contact OBK and see if they'll refund or resend them.

[ontariobeerkegs]

Freezing according to the manufacturers "Some yeast cells will die when the yeast freezes which can reduce the viability by approximately 10%. However, in our experience, this reduction is not significant to cause fermentation problems."

[Richard]

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/craft_yeast_storage.html

Contrary to what he said here then

They must have put some gelatin or something in the vials if that's the case. Good job WL.

For the record, our friendly neighborhood microbiologist said if you freeze slurry, it's screwed. Don't take this to mean you can freeze any old yeast for storage.

[chrismccull]

Well, the beer started at 1.042 and is now at 1.014 (6 days in), so ,the yeast seems to be working.  I hope that it will finish at 1.010 over the next week or so.

[fakr]

Good to hear chris, glad it worked out for you.