Bread didn't rise. Was it old flour?

[TomPinch]

Just that really. I used a simple 50% wholemeal / 50% white flour recipe that I've used many times without problems.

I gave it 6 hours to rise and it did so by no more than 30%

The wholemeal flour was given to me (shops are out) and after baking I noticed that it's BBD was in 2017. It was a bit lumpy and musty when I poured it out of the packet.

The only other culprits I can think of are the yeast (I baked last week with different flour but the rise was sluggish) and temperature (18 degrees in my house, 15 this morning, but I put the dough on top of the hot water cylinder with a couple of hot water bottles).

The bread tastes slightly sour.

Any advice?

Is the yeast in date? And if it is dried yeast did you put in tepid water?

Dd baked at the weekend with dried yeast that was bbe April 2020 and the yeast was ‘dead’ very poor rise, but just about salvageable

More likely a problem with the yeast.

More likely a problem with the yeast than with the flour.

Thanks for replies.

Yeast's BBD is Aug 20. It's Edmonds Surebake. Have used it plenty of times before, although I've only recently got this jar.

I put it in tepid water first.

Sometimes it is the yeast.

If you can get some new stuff

My money is on the yeast.

Probably the yeast but I'm currently using an unopened tin I found in my fridge that has a BBD of Dec 2017! I did not expect it to still be viable but it is making beautiful bread.

Can yeastv get that much worse in one week though?

Last week's bake doubled in size. So not great but much better than this.

Hmm, sounds strange
I usually put a little bit of honey or malt extract in the water, which is around blood temperature, stir in the year and leave 10 mins to let it 'foam'.
If it doesn't then I assume a problem with the yeast.
Water too hot or too cold can affect it.

It could be the flour but it can't really go off, as such

Thanks. I have tracked down new yeast and will try again with the old flour.

Does the wholemeal flour smell right? If it smells musty I'd bin it, it has more natural oils in it than white flour and a shorter shelf life for a reason. That might account for the slightly sour taste - the oil in the flour has gone rancid.

If the flour smells musty I wouldn't waste the yeast, it's probably that.

You could always make a flatbread with water and oil with it to test the taste if you're not sure about it.