Bank Yeast
 

How many of you bank your yeast?

I live in a remote area so can't pop out the the LHBS for yeast. Thus I've started banking yeast. My goal is to have a few common strains of both ale & lager strains on hand. Maybe a few wine strains for meads.

Pic of my current "bank" attached.

i bank all strains im using, even dry but i dont go back to dry too often

If you used smaller (half pint I think) canning or mason jars you would have much more room. I usually wash into a larger container like a spaghetti jar then stick that into the fridge. When it cools I transfer to smaller jars with labels and stick them back into the fridge. Saves a ton of space, and is just enough yeast for pitching to smaller batches or making a starter. I have four strains saved currently.

You should look into the smaller jars!

I put my yeast back in a sanitized white lab vial. I do 2 step starters so I don't have to worry much about low cell counts in my stored batches. Looking into doing yeast slants by winter.

I try to bank as often as is convenient..

I typically keep strains that are either special release (I bank every White labs platinum strain) or that are going to be optimal for re-use (lower gravity, strains I don't buy a lot), and then my house yeast WLP090. At the moment I have WLP300, WLP 530, WLP072, WLP090, WLP566 and WLP585 in my bank. Summer beers are where it's at! I always keep a packet of US-05 and S-04 in the fridge too, for impromptu brews.

I bank mine frozen. I make a starter larger than I need then freeze 4 vials. If I were to make 4 new ones from those for 4 generations I could brew 256 batches from the original buy.

I have about 6 or 7 styles saved so far.

I have about a dozen mason jars in my keezer from various strains, mostly large quantity of lager yeast, and those that I've harvested from commercial beers (Bell's and local breweries.)

What you don't see in the pic is the test tube rack in the door. Way more space efficient. The 1-liter bottles with air locks are mostly strains I am stepping up for use soon.

I've also found it handy to keep a couple of 1 liter bottles of starter solution and homemade yeast nutrient on hand.

I work in a lab so I bank mine frozen with 10% glycerol in a -80 degree freezer.