Stored liquid Yeast Lifetime

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Just had a strange thing happen which raises a good question, seen several post on the Internet about the subject but nothing concrete.

Had a pretty good storage of yeast I've make by dividing fresh into several and washed slurry from previous brews and storing in soda test tubes or sealed jars in the fridge, now most were half full with thick slurry and fresh wort with nutrient on top.

The strange thing that happened was they all died around the same month, completely separated from the wort, fell to the bottom and darkened in color, tried to make a starter with a couple which confirmed my thoughts, dead as a door knob

So the question is how long do yeast live in the fridge and what do we have to do to keep them alive?

what do you think?

 

[Foster82]

Some report storing yeast on slants for up to 18 months. Mine are hitting the 6 month mark, and still nice and viable.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

6 months is about how long mine died, with no slants

 

[pazu]

Wonder if there's a certain refrigerator temp that's best for storing liquid yeast. Just checked mine with ir thermometer, adjusted it to be warmer as some areas in there were <32F. ...I found that 33 - 38F is the range for yeast slurry in this old link.

http://www.probrewer.com/resources/library/bp-healthyyeast.php