yeast starter

[mr magoo]

Simple Yeast Ranching
Each batch of beer you brew is a good source of yeast for a future batch.

If you harvest yeast from the primary fermentor, you will need to separate the yeast from all the trub that is mixed in. You can simply use chilled boiled* water and two sanitized jars to separate the healthy yeast (white) away from the majority of the trub.

After racking the beer, swirl up the yeast layer on the bottom and pour some into a large sanitized jar (such as a mayonnaise jar).
Gently pour in some cold, boiled water and swirl it up to get all the yeast and trub in suspension.
Let the jar sit for a minute or three to allow most of the trub to settle to the bottom. Gently pour the cloudy water, containing suspended yeast, into another sanitized jar. Discard the dark trub.
Add some more water and repeat this procedure until you are left with a substantially light-colored yeast suspension and only a thin brown layer of dead yeast and trub on the bottom of the jar.
Store the jar in the refridgerator for up to a couple months. The yeast will turn brown as it ages. Discard it once it turns the color of peanut butter. Eventually the yeast will autolyze and die as its nutritional reserves are used up.
Pitch the yeast to a starter before using to ensure its vitality. If the starter smells wrong--rancid, vinegary, etc., the yeast may be contaminated. The dominant smell of a starter should be a yeasty smell, but sulfur smells are not necessarily bad, especially with lager yeast strains.

*Note: You want to use boiled water for two reasons:

For sanitation.
To avoid exposing the yeast to dissolved oxygen which would cause the yeast to deplete their glycogen reserves before storage.
Ok i've got all that now i would like to know, how do i go about pitching this yeast now? And how can i tell if the yeast is ok to use before i pitch it ?

[rwh]

Ok i've got all that now i would like to know, how do i go about pitching this yeast now? And how can i tell if the yeast is ok to use before i pitch it ?

Pitch the yeast to a starter before using to ensure its vitality. If the starter smells wrong--rancid, vinegary, etc., the yeast may be contaminated. The dominant smell of a starter should be a yeasty smell, but sulfur smells are not necessarily bad, especially with lager yeast strains.

So do you mean how do you create the starter? 24 hours before you want to brew, boil 100g of LDME in 1L water, cool, add to a sanitised bottle. Then tip the liquid off one of your jars of yeast, swirl up the sediment, and add this to your starter. Then bung and airlock to your bottle. 24 hours later it should be fermenting away happily, and you just tip the whole thing into your brew.

[KEG]

i really should try this. so far i only use Safale yeasts, but they're still adding about $5 to every brew i make - i could be making plenty of starters per brew hehe.

good practice on (relatively) cheap yeasts before i delve into the world of liquid yeast

[mr magoo]

Cheers rwh,

So do you mean how do you create the starter?
yes thats what i meant

[Fatgodzilla]

How much is enough yeast ? Is there as much yeast in a starter from a previous batch than in an original packet ? Like a previous comment, Safale at $5 a pop adds to the beer cost. What would happen if I used half a satchel ? Does it still work, just takes longer for yeast to complete the ferment ? Is there the same amount of yeast at the bottom of a finished brew as in a new satchel ??

[rwh]

How much is enough yeast?

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-3.html

Is there as much yeast in a starter from a previous batch than in an original packet?

The yeast multiplies during fermentation, so there is heaps more yeast in the trub than in you originally pitched.

Like a previous comment, Safale at $5 a pop adds to the beer cost. What would happen if I used half a satchel?

You would not save money because you'd lose some batches because of increased infection risk. You also risk stuck ferment.

[Aussie Claret]

Instead of spliting a dry yeast pack, simply pitch the next brew onto the yeast cake, thereby halving your yeast costs.

I have done the above without a problem but you will need adequate temperature control because the fermentation is likely to be vigorous (if not controlled) and the exothermic reaction will increase the fermentation rapidly, which may produce unwanted esters.

I have pitched on the yeast cake twice (three ferments intotal), I wouldn't go above this, simply to avoid possible contamination (risk factor) and you need to start off with the lightest beer first, it's no good making a brown ale for example then using the yeast cake on a pale ale.

AC

[Longrasser]

Palmer

Saflager S-189 and S-23, though only S-23 is currently available in a homebrewing size. The recommended fermentation temperature is 48-59°F. I would advise you to use two packets per 5 gallon batch to be assured of a good pitching rate.

Bugger me thats TEN bucks per brew

[Pale_Ale]

You can get some double-packs from my local HBS for $7.50 (lager yeast). I think they are 23g. Otherwise 2 safs for a lager. You can always cultivate some more by harvesting from the trub.

In fact, you could harvest from the trub, make several samples, then do as Aussie Claret suggests and pitch straight onto the remaining trub. Best of all you don't have to clean your fermenter!

[KEG]

you could always make a starter from your dry yeast rather than pitching two, as well..

[SpillsMostOfIt]

So, taking it to an extreme...

Make a regular-sized batch of unexciting beer and when it gets to High Krausen, bottle it into stubbies and refrigerate.

But a serious proposition - when a beer is at the right point, drain off an amount into a stubby and refrigerate for the next one. If I did this, wouldn't I then also be able to indulge my desire to clean fermenters after each batch?

[rwh]

Nah, you'd just indulge your desire to clean up shattered glass out of your fridge.

[Aussie Claret]

you could always make a starter from your dry yeast rather than pitching two, as well..

Sorry but this is not recommened by any dry yeast manufacturer that I know of. Making a starter from dried yeast is actually more detrimental.
Rehydration is recommended in some instances, for example high OG beers, or lagers when only pitching one pack.

AC

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Nah, you'd just indulge your desire to clean up shattered glass out of your fridge.

... which I recently lost. So the right point would be later in the process - say, just before bottling - or at bottling, but without priming sugar?

[Trough Lolly]

Simple Yeast Ranching
Each batch of beer you brew is a good source of yeast for a future batch.

If you harvest yeast from the primary fermentor, you will need to separate the yeast from all the trub that is mixed in. You can simply use chilled boiled* water and two sanitized jars to separate the healthy yeast (white) away from the majority of the trub.

After racking the beer, swirl up the yeast layer on the bottom and pour some into a large sanitized jar (such as a mayonnaise jar).
Gently pour in some cold, boiled water and swirl it up to get all the yeast and trub in suspension.
Let the jar sit for a minute or three to allow most of the trub to settle to the bottom. Gently pour the cloudy water, containing suspended yeast, into another sanitized jar. Discard the dark trub.
Add some more water and repeat this procedure until you are left with a substantially light-colored yeast suspension and only a thin brown layer of dead yeast and trub on the bottom of the jar.
Store the jar in the refridgerator for up to a couple months. The yeast will turn brown as it ages. Discard it once it turns the color of peanut butter. Eventually the yeast will autolyze and die as its nutritional reserves are used up.
[snip]

One minor point - yeast auto self lysis (autolysis) will be substantially attenuated if you chill the yeast to the point where the cells go dormant - otherwise plated yeast etc would never survive any lengthy storage time in the freezer. I've just kegged an ESB that was fermented with 4 year old Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast starter that I had in a stubby in the back of the lagering fridge. Granted, it did take 5 days for the film of yeast in the bottom of the bottle to come back to life, but I didn't note any off flavours or smells and I certainly didn't notice any autolysis in the yeast cake. Actually the beer above the yeast cake was quite nice, despite being unhopped!!

For those of us who are budget minded, you might also want to consider how to make your Wyeast smack packs and Whitelabs tubes last much longer...Simply swirl to re-suspend the yeast and decant the yeast starter you make into 6 or more stubbies, top up with cool pre-boiled water, cap and put in the fridge - you only need a small sample of yeast to make a starter which you can step up over several days before brewday to get a decent colony of active, viable yeast. Mark the bottles as 1st generation yeast. When you get to the last stubby, repeat the process by creating another 6 or more stubbies from the yeast cake in the fermenter that was generated from the last stubby and label these bottles as 2nd generation...With a good sanitation protocol in place you can easily get up to 6 or 7 generations before the risk of mutation is too high. That means you can potentially make 42 batches of beer from a single smack pack or tube. The key to this process, however, is to be super sensitive to bacterial infection and clean like a demon.

Cheers,
TL

[mr magoo]

Cheers TL,
Smack pack or Tube?

[Trough Lolly]

Either!
I typically use smack packs since that's all the local HBS stocks...but the principle remains the same regardless of the source.

Cheers,
TL

[Ross]

If using Whitelabs tubes, why not just pour off a 6th or whatever, into your starter & recap the bottle? why would you bother filling your fridge with 6 more bottles? Also when splitting a wyeast pack, I simply pour the unsmacked yeast into 6 sterile capped test tubes & pitch as required


Cheers Ross

[Trough Lolly]

G'day Ross,
Not all of us are lucky enough to live in a treasure trove and have test tubes and racks laying around the brewshed!

...of course you can decant part of the tube and make a starter - my suggestion was in the context of using the fermenter slurry.

Cheers,
TL
(P.S. Have you got any choc wheat?)

[kangarool]

For those of us who are budget minded, you might also want to consider how to make your Wyeast smack packs and Whitelabs tubes last much longer...Simply swirl to re-suspend the yeast and decant the yeast starter you make into 6 or more stubbies, top up with cool pre-boiled water, cap and put in the fridge - you only need a small sample of yeast to make a starter which you can step up over several days before brewday to get a decent colony of active, viable yeast.

TL can you give me a couple more specific pointers with this method? I am a couple days away from bottling a Sierra Nevadaesque ale that's been going for just over a week. I used the Wyeast American pale ale smack pack (at $14.95 per) so would love to give the pricey yeast at least another work out or two.

So when you say "Simply swirl to re-suspend the yeast and decant the yeast starter" do you simply mean swirl the entire contents of the 23L in my primary right now? And after doing so, simply draw off a bottle's worth of that? If so, how long then will the contents of the primary need to resettle before being OK to bottle the batch?

thanks for your help, not sure if i interpreted your method right or not...