Starter ready to go, can't brew for 7 days - what would you do?

So, we were supposed to brew tonight, and now can't for reasons too boring to go into.

I have a starter that I made about 70 hours ago. The beer we're making (Belgian Dubbel) should have an OG of 1.070. I won't be home for the next 7 days starting early tomorrow morning. Would you:

A) Put it in the fridge, let the yeast flocculate, make another starter tomorrow morning and pitch the yeast from this one into it (after pouring off the liquid)

B) Add more DME, leave out of the fridge and have wife put it in the fridge in 3 or 4 days

C) Put in the fridge for 7 days

D) Some combination of the above

E) None of the above

Any and all opinions are welcome, thanks!

If you have enough yeast, (C). If you don't have enough yeast or you aren't sure, then (b). That's what I'd do.

I would say I am not sure. I think having more yeast in 7 days certainly wouldn't hurt. I figure (A) or (B) would do the trick. Any particular reason you prefer (B)?

Put it in the fridge-effectively cold crashing it. Pull it out of the fridge 24 hours before you brew. Then you can decant most of the liquid off of the cake, swirl it up to get it into suspension, then pitch! I sometimes do it this way purposely.

Well, if I added more DME, I would cold-crash it (my wife would actually) in 3 more days. That would be okay too right?

Also forgot to ask, would you pour off the liquid before adding DME? (I would be overly careful to not pour off any of the yeast slurry even though I haven't refrigerated it)

When you say add more DME, I assume you mean boil up some more DME, cool it, and add the new wort to the starter. I wouldn't like to add more DME without boiling it first.
As for decanting before stepping up the starter, I wouldn't do that if the existing starter was not refrigerated. Most of the active, viable yeast will be suspended in the liquid.
After chilling, the active yeast will flocculate, so decanting the clear wort will only lose a small amount of active yeast.

-a.

Yeah, I meant I would refrigerate it first (and boil the new DME, of course). How long would you say I need to refrigerate to ensure I'm not throwing out a lot of active yeast when I decant?

If your starter is the appropriate size, just refridgerate it, you'll lose some viability but not a ton. On brew day, decant the spent wort and pitch. You don't need to warm the yeast up, you can pitch it while it's still cold. It's only necessary for the starter to be within a few degrees of the wort if it's an active starter, if the yeast is dormant you can add it cold.

+ 1 on the advice above to put it in the fridge, assuming you have the amount that you want/need. In other words, if you wouldn't step it up anyway, no need to do so just because you'll be away for a week. Cheers!

either do as JKoravos said or "rinse" the yeast.

To do that crash your yeast out of suspension just like above and boil a pint or quart of water to de-oxegenate it and then can the water in a pressure cooker. Leave the canned water to cool for a couple days while the starter crashes. Once the yeast has all flocculated pour off the liquid and pour the yeast into a sterilized (or just well sanitized) beer bottle and top it off with the sterile water. Treated this way it should last a few weeks.

dantodd said:

either do as JKoravos said or "rinse" the yeast.

To do that crash your yeast out of suspension just like above and boil a pint or quart of water to de-oxegenate it and then can the water in a pressure cooker. Leave the canned water to cool for a couple days while the starter crashes. Once the yeast has all flocculated pour off the liquid and pour the yeast into a sterilized (or just well sanitized) beer bottle and top it off with the sterile water. Treated this way it should last a few weeks.

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My 2 cents: but that seems like an excessive amount of effort for an 8 day wait to pitch when crashing it in the fridge will work just fine...but there's always more than one way to skin a kitty.

If you want a massive pitch I would pour off and pitch more wort, one week later pour off again leaving enough to pitch with.
Otherwise I would put it in the fridge, then as I started the brew take it out and pour off and let it come up to room temp.

can't you just leave it out in reality? What are the negatives of just letting it sit at room temperature for another week? Its just like pitching onto a re-used yeast cake...no?

h4rdluck said:

can't you just leave it out in reality? What are the negatives of just letting it sit at room temperature for another week? Its just like pitching onto a re-used yeast cake...no?

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You'll just lose a lot more viability that way. At room temp you'll lose ~25% of the yeast in a week, at fridge temps it's more like 5%.

brewt00l said:

My 2 cents: but that seems like an excessive amount of effort for an 8 day wait to pitch when crashing it in the fridge will work just fine...but there's always more than one way to skin a kitty.

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Yep, lots of work but what if next weekend comes and something else pops up? This way you're taken care of and the yeast will be there and ready to pitch for a couple months. Plus it's great practice for harvesting yeast in the future.

Well, here's my plan. I'm home right now (for about 10 hours) so when I got home last night I took the starter out of the fridge and poured off the liquid. Woke up now and it's at room temp, so I'm going to boil some DME, cool it and pour it in there. Then, brew on Sunday!! Good plan, yes?

probably not a bad idea at this point but I would have just left it in the fridge until Sunday morning and then decanted the beer just before pitching.