homebrewandbeer.com

Howdy,

Bought a Coopers Australian Pale Ale the other day and the use by date on the bottom of the can is 21/10/07. The yeast packet under the lid, however, has "29 1 05 PA" stamped on it.

Is this stamp the use by date, manufacturing date, or some random number?

According to this thread http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... light=date it is a use by date.

Picky, I know. But I am curious.

Manufactured date, so no problems.
If you are concerned that the yeast isn't right, (it will be honest), but you could make a starter to prove the yeast.
Simply boil a litre of water add a table spoon or two of malt boil to kill any nasties, let it cool then add the yeast to a long neck and wort put a bung and air lock on, or losely screw the bottle lid on, and see if the yeast starts; if it does simply pitch as normal.
Cheers
AC

Cheers AC.

For the record, I just bought a Coopers Real Ale which has the text "use by date" next to the date stamp. So I guess some Coopers yeast have a manufacturing date, while others have a use by date.

I'm pretty sure that unless otherwise stated the date is a packed-on date.

Oliver

The number on the packet is the day of the year the yeast were placed in the packet. Ie 291 05 means the 291 st day of 2005. the PA tells you what type of yeast it is, and I am not sure about what means what. Coopers now say you should go by the best before date on the can since the yeast will outlast that date.

Wally