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aseelye · 01-04-2007, 02:43 AM

I'm curious what you all out there do for keeping yeast strains and making starters. (For those of you that elect not to buy yeast each and every time.) Do you keep some in the fridge? If so, just a little, or a whole 2 Qt starter? I'm thinking of making a simple pale ale and canning it prior to pitching in 1 Qt mason jars for making starters, and then keeping some alive in smaller quantities in the fridge, but wondering if anyone here has tried this, and what they found worked best.

Blender · 01-04-2007, 03:20 AM

I try to get 3 batches out of the liquid yeast I use. Sometimes I use it in the following brew and sometimes I harvest it from the primary and store it in the refirgerator. You can do it either way. If I make a starter I use the whole thing and collect it after primary fermentation.

homebrewer_99 · 01-04-2007, 03:51 AM

I wash my yeast from the primary then break it into smaller batches in baby food jars. I can get 3-4 starters from 1 batch. I reuse about 2-3 times. This can allow me to make/share enough yeast for 15 batches or so.

boo boo · 01-04-2007, 10:22 AM

http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/yeast_harv_freeze.html

This is what I do to extend my yeast.

If you are planning on canning wort to use in starters then you might want to read an article in BYO that addresses the dangers in pre making wort starters.

Kaiser · 01-05-2007, 02:51 AM

I always aim for about 21L at the end of the boil. 17-18L go into the fermenter. The remaining trub/hop wort mix is filtered and then frozen in 2L PET bottless. When you freeze stuff you don't have to worry about spoilage. I may use the frozen wort for priming and/or future yeast propagation.

As for keeping yeast, I hope to get started with plates soon. So far I either reused yeast from previous batches or when that became to risky I grow a new culture from small samples that I took from the original packet and stored in a vial.

Kai