yeast starter

[Ross]

G'day Ross,

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

Whoops - only just saw this - YES.

cheers

Ross

[Ross]

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

You don't need a treasure trove A few testubes can be bought from a chemist very cheaply & from my experience splitting the original smackpack is easier, cleaner & takes up far less room in the fridge. I've had all sorts of problems from harvested yeast stored in bottles for any length of time. If harvesting yeast, i prefer to just pour half a bottle straight out the fermenter tap & pitch the whole lot into the next brew within a few days.... 3 or 4 times would be my limit though. Invairably gets used less than that, as I'm usually not wanting to use the same yeast for more than a couple of brews.


cheers Ross

[rwh]

TL can you give me a couple more specific pointers with this method?

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... r+stubbies
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... r+stubbies

[kangarool]

TL can you give me a couple more specific pointers with this method?

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... r+stubbies
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... r+stubbies

OK, thanks. Have taken some time to look through these two threads, and they're interesting, but mostly to do with extending the yeast's life direct from packet... only the tail end of one of them has to do with salvaging yeast from the fermenter, well after the initial liquid yeast has been pitched and it's done its job.

I've also googled and there is lots of info, but I am still unclear on a few points. Main things:

If it is indeed doable, where do you draw the 'sample'? from the trub? or just from the 'beer' in the fermenter that would otherwise be bottled?

do you feed the bottled sample a fermentable to get it partially active again, prior to fridge-ing in a few stubbies? or, do you stop it with cold, and then restart a day or so before starting the next batch?

sorry if i'm asking for repeat of info available elsewhere, but it's time to bottle soon and would love to salvage the Wyeast that's proven itself once... cheers/kanga

[kangarool]

And just to clarify one thing, because it looks like my previous question is answered by the very starter post in this thread.

I think it's not, and here's why i asked the question i did: the first part of the initial post goes "If you harvest yeast from the primary fermentor, you will need to separate the yeast from all the trub that is mixed in" ...

OK, but then the very next sentence is

"After racking the beer, swirl up the yeast layer on the bottom ..."

hence my confusion: he talks about harvesting yeast from the primary, but then talks about 'after racking' which suggests secondary...

I don't rack (yet). So, the question is, is it possible to harvest from 1ry, w/out having to rack to 2ndry? thanks again everyone/kanga

[Aussie Claret]

Kangarool,

Yes it is possible to collect yeast from primary, simply do it after fermentation is complete, when you're bottling or kegging.

In fact if you are going to collect any yeast I believe that it's better to collect from primary rather than secondary due to floculation properties of the yeast in primary.

After you've collected the yeast try to seperate the yeast and trub by washing with boiled and cooled water. Simply collect the yeast in a clean jar or bottle, add boiled cooled water give it a shake and let it sit for a few minutes, the trub settles out whilst the yeast will remain in suspension pour off the yeast into a second clean bottle and repeat the process a couple of times.

AC

[kangarool]

Kangarool,

Yes it is possible to collect yeast from primary, simply do it after fermentation is complete, when you're bottling or kegging.
AC

great thanks AC that's what i was looking for. So, after separating the trub and the suspended yeast, simply keep/store the yeast in a few clean stubbies, capped, in the fridge? And then use one of the stubbies to step up a starter, for use in next batch, is that right? How long will they remain viable, in the fridge?

[rwh]

OK, this might be more info than you want, but these references go pretty deep into things:

Yeast Ranching - How To Brew
Yeast Harvesting and freezing
Yeast Information and Technique Resource

To answer your questions as simply as I can:

You can harvest yeast either from the krausen (for a top fermenting yeast) during high krausen, which avoids the trub, or you can wait for primary to complete and harvest it from the trub, so long as you wash it (see yeast ranching above for the washing technique).

You do not want the yeast to have access to either oxygen or fermentables. You want it to be as dormant as possible, and you want it to remain as close to 0°C as possible without freezing it. Put it at the back of the fridge close to the cooling element. If the yeast has access to warmth, oxygen or fermentables then chances are it'll blow up the bottles or gush onto the ceiling when you open it.

Oh, and be as clean as you possibly can. Your best tool for detecting a contaminated batch is your nose. If it smells bad, then it is bad.