Making yeast bank from starter?

So I thought of this while perusing the Internet and I couldn't seem to find a whole lot of info. Maybe I can get some answers here.

So instead of washing yeast from a full batch of beer and going through that whole process, why not just get a fresh pack or vial of yeast and make a starter then split that starter up into vials or whatever container for future use. Then obviously store them in a fridge, but then when your ready to brew, pull one out make a starter and your off.

I would just go with the general rule from wyeast and mr malt of 4.5 billion in 1 mL of yeast solids. Then I can go from there as far as how much yeast I need for a particular batch.

So is this something that would work or am I way off base here? Thanks guys.

I do this with mason jars. I grow my starters to produce between 100-200 billion extra cells, pour off 850 mL into a sanitized (boiled) quart mason jar for culture storage, pour the rest into a sanitized two-quart mason jar to crash/decant prior to pitching. Currently have around 12 strains.

Yeah, it's getting to be a fairly common way of saving yeast. Beats the hell out of washing (rinsing). I generally make an oversized starter (30-50B cells) and save them into a sanitized mason jar for later use.

Here's a good write-up of the process that is fairly close to what I've been doing for a few years now...

http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

I've been doing this since I started buying vials. It works well. I don't focus too much on cell count (I will sometime). But I just make 500ml more of a starter than i normally would and put the the extra 500 ml in a mason jar. It will keep for months. If you want more confirmation check out www.brulospher.com
He explains all of this in detail, and his site is good to kill a few hours learning great beer knowledge.

LLBeanJ, you beat me to it.

Thanks guys! I really just wanted some black and white experience here. I found a lot of rinsing and slanting yeast but I didn't want to do either of those. I'll check that link out. I really appreciate your input guys!

When I do my starter, I pitch to the cooled wort, reserving a small sample in the flask. I re-feed the sample and stir until its finished out. Cold crash and decant ONCE only. Then swirl up and pour slurrey into 2 preform tubes. Cold crash the tubes, decant the tubes, swirl up the flask and repeat the process until i have either no more slurrey or 1/2 -2/3 a tube of yeast cells. When I make the next starter I pitch both tubes and repeat. When i frist started ranching yeast, i did 3 tubes and didn't decant, I just got whatever I got from the first pour. Usually a very thin coat in the bottom of the tube. The cells die from the outside perimeter in, so a thicker mat of yeast cells means the culture overall survives longer. Also, I was using one tube to pitch, until I realized I was just pitching progressively older yeast samples with subsequent batches.

william_shakes_beer said:

Then swirl up and pour slurrey into 2 preform tubes. Cold crash the tubes, decant the tubes, swirl up the flask and repeat the process until i have either no more slurrey or 1/2 -2/3 a tube of yeast cells.

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So I've read your post like 3 or 4 times trying to connect the dots and I had a question. So after the initial starter is done and crashed and decanted, you swirl up what's left of the beer and the yeast to get everything in suspension, then pour that slurrey into the two tubes. Now, will you have excess slurrey in your flask? I'm assuming you will.

Next, you put the tubes and what's remaining in the flask in to crash and decant those again correct? Then decant the tubes and the flask again and split up the remaining slurrey into the two tubes.

Am I correct in this is how you do it William? Just trying to get an idea of what I want to do with my process. Thanks!

Rake_Rocko said:

So I've read your post like 3 or 4 times trying to connect the dots and I had a question. So after the initial starter is done and crashed and decanted, you swirl up what's left of the beer and the yeast to get everything in suspension, then pour that slurrey into the two tubes. Now, will you have excess slurrey in your flask? I'm assuming you will.

Next, you put the tubes and what's remaining in the flask in to crash and decant those again correct? Then decant the tubes and the flask again and split up the remaining slurrey into the two tubes.

Am I correct in this is how you do it William? Just trying to get an idea of what I want to do with my process. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I decant the flask only once, to get most of the starter beer out. This is to ensure I'm less likely to select the most flocculant cells. Each cycle after the first I crash and decant the tubes, then swirl the flask and refill the tubes. The whole process takes about a week. I store the flask in the frige but only as a convenience. Hence the swirl.

Ok I see what your saying. Thanks for clearing that up! Seems like a solid process. I'm wondering now how you estimate your cell count. Do you go by the 4.5 billion per mL of yeast solids? Or do you just say to hell with it and make a starter out of whatever is in the tube?

I do a similar routine, fire up the starter (2L), crash, decant all but a tiny amount of wort, swirl it up and pitch. I then take the flask and add more wort, then back onto the stir plate. Once it finishes, I crash again, decant all the liquid, and add a tiny amount of sterile water and swirl, then I dump it into the the (empty) sterile water jar, and back into the fridge. Once it settles I decant the water and use a syringe to suck up all the yeast and fill 35ml preforms. I usually get 2 full and 1 almost full. Then I'm ready for 3 more brews before I need to build up again.
I do the same routine for yeast from bottles, starting with the post pitch steps. I have a few of these on hand.

Here is a yeast calculator for doing this: http://www.homebrewdad.com/yeast_calculator.php

Also there is this write up on doing this and freezing your yeast for long term storage: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/guide-making-frozen-yeast-bank-35891/