Collecting Yeast for Future Brews

Well, I opted not to try and harvest any yeast from my porter since it race-fermented due to an untimely heat wave (I'll be popping the first bottle next week to see what happens when a porter ferments at 83 °F).

In the meantime, I've put up a nice Pale Ale using the same strain (WLP023), fresh from the pack, and I've collected samples from the starter, top of primary and bottom of primary. Can't get any from secondary cuz the beer's still using it.

I washed, settled, drained and froze my various samples. Next batch I'll try from a starter and see how she rocks...
 
Thurston Brewer said:
Well, I opted not to try and harvest any yeast from my porter since it race-fermented due to an untimely heat wave (I'll be popping the first bottle next week to see what happens when a porter ferments at 83 °F).

In the meantime, I've put up a nice Pale Ale using the same strain (WLP023), fresh from the pack, and I've collected samples from the starter, top of primary and bottom of primary. Can't get any from secondary cuz the beer's still using it.

I washed, settled, drained and froze my various samples. Next batch I'll try from a starter and see how she rocks...
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Gday thirsty I'm not sure what dry or liquid yeast costs you in America but it's definitely worth pinching some for next brew here in Aus. Eg fermentis Us05 $8-9 per packet that's like 2 kg or malted barley!:eek: Or if you want liquid yeast like whitelabs or wyeast your looking at $10-11 bucks plus shipping for me as no local homebrew store round me stocks liquid yeast as per limited shelf life. I've got one liquid yeast strain Wlp090 I've re pitched 3 times so far and will continue so for as long as it is viable. I've herd of this strain stalling on 3-4 rep itch fingers crossed:).

That leads me to another question some dried yeast suppliers recommend not to re pitch their dry yeast (probably to make money) but has anyone found any issues with re pitching dried yeast I've gone two on 34/70 and US05 with no hiccups.​
 
Another experienced brewer i know from other forums has over built starters of US-05 and rebuilt them up to 9 times
With my coopers commercial ale yeast (recovered from bought beer )i'm at generation 6 and now it just flocs even better .

i don't wash yeast for storage , i just build starters 25% + larger than i need them , save the excess and store it in the fridge
 
Yep same same Mark no stress to the yeast its fermenting a clean 1.040ish brew with no hops (yet I've herd some people throw a pellet or two in). Actually the other day when preparing for my latest brew my M54 steam lager I pulled out my old US05 yeast and lit it warm up because I was gunna toss it because it was over 3 or more months old and when I gave it a sniff it still smelt good no nasty oders so i recon I could of bumped her up in a starter and let her go in another brew:D yea but I tossed her down the drain to make room for my M54 Mangrove Jacks I hope that yeast performs or it's getting tossed too:p.
 
i have a few different strains chilling in old vegemite jars in the fridge , with my saved portion of yeast i build i back up to 500 ml , chill and decant the spent wort off saving just enough to swirl the yeast up and fill the jar to the brim .
saves me $6-13 a brew this way
 
Mark D Pirate said:
i have a few different strains chilling in old vegemite jars in the fridge , with my saved portion of yeast i build i back up to 500 ml , chill and decant the spent wort off saving just enough to swirl the yeast up and fill the jar to the brim .
saves me $6-13 a brew this way
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Yea if I had a bigger fermentation fridge I'd put my old 15 lt fermentorsanformentors to work on some split yeast batches;). Give me time I'm still angling the freezer to the missus :p
 
I have gone many generations repitching yeast dry and liquid, yeast is yeast. Dont know why they say not to repitch. Oh yeah I do.
 
Brew Cat said:
I have gone many generations repitching yeast dry and liquid, yeast is yeast. Dont know why they say not to repitch. Oh yeah I do.
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Glad you added that last - may have spared us many posts on mutation, genetic drift, viability, contamination....
 
Nope that aint a corona I wish it was but look at the trub at the bottom! This is my last yeast save of m54 mangrove Jacks lager yeast! It's ready for a starter for next brew or whenever I think she'll keep in this. Don't worry that's one clean bottle but why not keep yeast in beer bottles? It's not like we don't have any lying around:p
 

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So far I've tried the samples saved from the krauesen and from the fermenter bottom. Both were successful at creating a vigorous starter, but the krauesen sample kicked in faster than the bottom cake. Easier to collect and clean the krauesen, too.
 
These were both frozen samples, too. I've read some say that you can't freeze yeast, but it works OK for me so far.
 
Thurston Brewer said:
These were both frozen samples, too. I've read some say that you can't freeze yeast, but it works OK for me so far.
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True that Thurston well I didn't know hey cheers for testing this for me. When arriving home from the homebrew store with a satchet of 34/70 I looked at the freezer then the fridge and halfway about to toss yeast packet in freezer and thought better not just in case and popped em in on top of a keg in the keg fridge instead. So a little arctic or Antarctic conditions won't trouble em none eh?

Them 34/70 yeasties are about to take a swim in this DME/RWS mixture
 

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Well, I'm testing out the idea and so far the yeast are none the worse for wear. It may be that as time goes by they suffer some, but as long as I can wake 'em up good with a starter I'll keep going with this method.

Guess I'm a yeast rancher now... Yeeehaawww! Saddle up and ride out with the herd!! :D
 
Dried yeast can survive well in the freezer , i've only frozen liquid yeast by accident and it still worked out ok .
can't find the link i was referring to in an earlier post
 
Thurston Brewer said:
Well, I'm testing out the idea and so far the yeast are none the worse for wear. It may be that as time goes by they suffer some, but as long as I can wake 'em up good with a starter I'll keep going with this method.

Guess I'm a yeast rancher now... Yeeehaawww! Saddle up and ride out with the herd!! :D
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Get them yeasties rollin, rawhide!!
 
I didn't read the whole thread, so maybe it's been said, but, here's what I've been doing:
Figure what you need for your starter for the beer your making (using the starter calculator here), make your starter about 100b cells bigger than you need, then decant and pour that portion of slurry into a boiled, sanitized jar. I use WY1332 often, so I just take that dated jar and calculate as normal, making the starter about 100b larger than I need and go again. No trub, no mess, simple.
(I got the idea somewhere, maybe it was here, been working out great for me).
 
Mr bip brulosopher got me on to doing this it makes perfect sense not sending the yeast through the rigorous exercise of fermenting a full volume of beer then harvesting them why not grab some before they enter the big game. That way their nice and fresh limbered up and ready to go and then I stick em in the fridge and the fall asleep:D.

Below is some of my last saved yeast not much at bottom of jar but I'll probably do two 2lt re starts:rolleyes:
 

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