Making and storing liquid yeast starters.

[chadjaja]

I want to move on from safale dry yeasts etc in order to get some of the styles of beers I want to make more specific.

This is the easiest explanation on how to make some up I've found online.

My questions are though.

If space in the fridge is a premium and I don't want a six pack of bottles per batch of yeast can I make half the starters? Use half the contents of the vial and make up three stubbies or even just one at a time and store the opened tube for a good length of time??

Or is there an easier way for someone like me to make or use liquid yeasts that doesn't make a huge stack of batches throughout the year and hasn't the space. It would be a while till I see savings from liquid yeast.

I'm sure there is an easy answer to make me look stupid but Im pretty brain dead tonight

You will need: -

2 – 3 liter bottle (Plastic Coke bottle will do) 17 – 25mm bored rubber bung Airlock
100g malt (any type)
6 Stubbies

Method: -

1) Clean & sterilise the bottle, bung etc.
2) Dissolve malt in a cup of boiling water & add to the bottle.
3) Fill with cold water leaving a good 100mm space at top.
4) Add liquid yeast & shake. Replace bung & airlock and leave for 24 to 48 hours till it is fermenting actively.
5) Gently shake bottle to mix sediment through the culture and bottle into stubbies. Cap & refrigerate immediately.

*You now have at least 6 starters, which will keep in the fridge for 6 to 12 months. Use the following method to re-activate the starters.

Using the Yeast Starters

Method: -

1) The day before you plan on making your brew, remove one of your yeast starters from the fridge and gentle shake to mix through the sediment.
2) Sterilise a 750 ml bottle, bung & airlock.
3) Add a tablespoon of malt or dextrose to the bottle (any fermentable).
4) Transfer the contents of your yeast starter to the bottle & top up with cold water leaving 100mm (4 inches) at top.
5) Replace bung airlock and leave a day to start fermenting again.
6) When active you can now use this to brew. Make your beer as you normally would and add the contents of the bottle instead of your dry yeast.

[blandy]

Hi chadjaja

If space in the fridge is a premium and I don't want a six pack of bottles per batch of yeast can I make half the starters? Use half the contents of the vial and make up three stubbies or even just one at a time and store the opened tube for a good length of time??

It's probably not such a good idea leaving the vial open in the fridge. The whole point of the vial is that it's sealed and therefore (for all intents and purposes) sterile. Leaving it open in the fridge will give all the bugs in the air a huge chance to contaminate it. You might be lucky, but then again you might not.

Or is there an easier way for someone like me to make or use liquid yeasts that doesn't make a huge stack of batches throughout the year and hasn't the space. It would be a while till I see savings from liquid yeast.

There are a few options. I use a method similar to the one you posted, but don't always make a 6-pack worth of starters. Even if you make and use only 2 or 3 stubbies, it's only marginally more expensive to use the liquid yeast, and IMHO the results are well worth it. If you've got some mates who homebrew, try to split up a 6-pack between you. That way you don't have heaps of starters lying around in the fridge, and you can try out different liquid yeast varieties a lot quicker.

[chadjaja]

Thanks for the reply mate. Just how well would they transport? One mate lives on the other side of the city and either I ride or its a two train journey there.

They wouldn't warm up too much I would think in an insulated bag but its worth asking.

I think this is the next step in my brewing I'll undertake and any tips please post them. Best place to buy them from in Melbourne? I assume G&G.

[blandy]

They'll be fine in an insulated bag with an ice brick for a few hours

G&G all the way.

Welcome to the slippery slope of liquid yeast (which is a subsection of the slippery slope of homebrewing)

[chadjaja]

Yeah I've only done the liquid thing with the CPA yeast starter route.

It seems it will be easier to produce a drier less banana/clove driven wheat beer to in the American style using these as well compared to dry yeasts available. A lot of my friends don't like the 'smelly' version

Now to pick out a few from the stacks available it seems.

Recommendations guys? Seems a lot of styles have a lot of choices.

[Pommie]

I bought some test tubes and a rack off e-bay and split my liquid yeast into 6 with one-fifth into each test-tube and the sixth into a brew (I use the smack-pack liquid for this 1st brew). I then make a starter with the contents of the test-tube when required in a baby feeding bottle with 200ml of water and 4 tablespoons of dry malt.
I've colour coded the test-tubes depending on the contents.

[damian44]

This is what i was told on another forum.....


A 2L simple starter will just about double the amount of cells in a Wyeast pack - so after splitting it 5 ways, each of your jars will only have 2/5ths of a pack of yeast in it. And thats not enough to pitch into anything.

To get to the pitching rate for your batch - lets say 26L of 1.050 wort - you would need about 240billion cells. To get that you are going to need to pitch one of your specimen jars into a +5L starter, or you should be stepping it up once on the way - ie the specimen jar into a 1 litre starter, and when that has grown out, the yeast from that into a 2L starter.

I would be more inclined to tip out 10ml from the yeast pack into one of the specimen jars - put it under some sterile water in the fridge for later. Then put the remainder of the fresh pack into a 2-3L starter to pitch into your beer.

Then later, you can take the 10ml and step it up to the amount of yeast you started with. You would go 10ml (approx 8billion cells) into 100ml starter to get about 15billion cells - the yeast from that into a 1L starter to get to about 50billion cells - and the yeast from that into a second 1L starter to get back to the about 100billion cells you find in a fresh wyeast smack pack.

All of that is for simple starters.. stirplates etc knocks down the volumes of the starters needed. With all the starters grown on a stir plate the second 1L starter would not be needed.

The trouble with splitting the packs, is that you end up with a lot less yeast - so you have to make up the numbers by growing big starters.

On the other hand, another way to grow a lot of yeast is to brew a batch. You grow just a nice simple 2L starter from your Wyeast pack - and ferment the beer with it. The you can scoop out as much yeast as you want from the bottom of the fermentor. 50ml of nice thick yeast from your fermentor will have more cells than a smackpack would. plop that 50ml into a few specimen jars and you are good to go for a while. And its a hell of a lot less complex than mucking about with all those starters.

Dried yeast is another option - the WB-06 apparently gives a nice clove note without all that much banana.

Sorry to make it all sound so complex... but to do it properly it is a little complex. if you want to save money by splitting yeast packets, you pay the universe back in effort required.





I hope that helps.

[drsmurto]

Cut from another post of mine.

AHB links - Yeast Farming, Starting Wyeast

My methods FWIW

Starting Wyeast
If i have time i build a 2L (or 5L if making a lager) starter prior to brew day.

1. Smack pack, let swell. Whilst a swollen pack isnt necessary it wakes up the yeast and gets them going.

2. 2L of cold water with 200g of LDME - boil for 10-15mins and then cool to 25-30C.

3. Pitch yeast, aerate it till your arm is about to drop off and either stir if you have a stir plate or shake the container every time you pass it.

4. Wait till fermentation is complete, or close to. Crash chill o/n, pour off beer and tip ~1/4 into a sanitised container. Pitch the remaining into wort.

Yeast Farming
1. Rack beer once fermentation is complete.

2. Add ~1.5L of cooled, boiled water to yeast cake and shake.

3. Pour into sanitised container.

4. Let it sit for 5-10 mins and then pour of milky suspension leaving the solid on the bottom of the container behind (this is usually cold break and contains a small amount of yeast but not enough to worry about)

5. Put in the fridge and wait till the yeast flocs out.

6. Pour off the liquid and add more cooled boiled water.

7. Repeat last 2 steps till the water is pretty much colourless.

8. At this point i either split it into several batches to store long term or pitch 1/2 into a fresh wort and split the rest.

Hope that makes sense. Slanting is another option but one i havent explored yet. This works for me.

Cheers
DrSMurto

p.s. once you discover liquid yeasts you will find it very hard to go back to dry. I still use US-05 and nottingham occasionally but wouldnt dare make an english beer or a lager with a dry yeast. The cost becomes irrelevant if you reuse the yeast.