Are you guys using half pint or pint jars and does it really matter? I don't want to have to store the bigger jars unless I had to (not that it's that much bigger, I suppose, but if I could take 8 half pint jars from 2 5 gallon batches rather than 4 1 pt jars from 1 batch...
Are you guys using half pint or pint jars and does it really matter? I don't want to have to store the bigger jars unless I had to (not that it's that much bigger, I suppose, but if I could take 8 half pint jars from 2 5 gallon batches rather than 4 1 pt jars from 1 batch...
I've been using one quart jars and they're just too big, IMO. You'd be fine just using one pint jars or less. Also, when making your starter, don't be like me and use 2 quarts. It just makes it that much more difficult to separate the yeast from the beer.
The good news is, obviously, my washed yeast seemed to work, though they had been refridgerated for the 2 months they've been stored. Well, that and a culture made of three bottles. Seemed healthy enough to me. : D
I washed Wyeast 3638 about a month ago; made a starter on friday and pitched it yesterday. Within 12 hours it was bubbling like mad. They were in pint jars (4 from one batch).
I use pint jars. Last evening I began an experiment.
I had five jars of Phat Tyre yeast I washed about a month ago.
Using a stainless steel turkey baster, with an injection tip, I grabbed yeast from the bottom of three of the jars and squirted it into two of the others.
I wanted to consolidated my yeast efforts.
Of course, every time you mess with this stuff, you do take the chance of infecting it.
I moved my stout over to my secondary and filled 5 1pt mason jars. I didn't have a big jar that I could do the intermediary step (I'm assuming it's to use as a filter rather than trying to work out of your carboy), so I just filled the 5 jars the best I could with my autosiphon. Some of them have a little bit of grit at the bottom, but for the most part they aren't bad. If I decide to actually use any of these, should I try and siphon again getting the batch away from the grit that has settled? I'm not sure if I'm really going to use these (I don't know if I'm going to make 5 batches that require an Irish ale yeast), but I figured I'd get the hang of it since I had the yeast.
Is there anyway to tell or test how good I did (other than lack of crap at the bottom of the mason jars)?
Thanks for this great write up Bernie! I had previously thought that anything to do with yeast washing/culturing/ etc was only done by crazy people in white lab coats . I got some serious bubblage going on in my Weihenstephan Apfelwein! Thanks again
I'm finally taking the time to do this RIGHT! I've never done it to spec before and I usually have trouble harvesting (mostly due to laziness or not having enough time). The junk is settling in the carboy now...thanks for the tutorial, Bernie!
.planned:
•Scottish 80/- •Sweet Stout •Roggenbier .primary | bright:
98: Moss Hollow Soured '09 72: Oude Kriek 99: B-Weisse 102: Brett'd BDSA 104: Feat of Strength Helles Bock 105: Merkin Brown .on tap | kegged:
XX: Moss Hollow Springs Sparkling Water 95: Gott Mit Uns German Pils 91b: Brown Willie's Oaked Abbey Ale 103: Merkin Stout
98: Yorkshire Special 100: Maple Porter 89: Cidre Saison 101: Steffiweizen '09 (#3)
Now that I've got 10 one pint mason jars in my fridge, can I just move them to smaller vials? I really only need the goodness from the bottom of the mason jars, right? Should I extract most of the top portion of the jar, re-suspend the yeast in the now halfway filled (or whatever) jar and then move it to a sterilized vial?
. I got some serious bubblage going on in my Weihenstephan Apfelwein! Thanks again 
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