Freezing yeast?

Sounds crazy, right? Well, I've recently heard of freezing yeast as a way to preserve it for future use. It seems to me that you would end up killing the living organisms instead of preserving them. Has anybody done this succesfully? Is there a particular method beyond throwing a jar of slurry in the freezer?

I'm going to try this next time I keg, but if anybody has already tried this, or has any useful info to share, I'm interested to hear how about it.


I know. it sounds ridiculous. But sometimes ridiculous things work out.

If you just throw the yeast in the freezer you will kill it!

You can freeze yeast and many including myself do it successfully. I have over 7 strains in my bank and have used some that were more than 6 months old. I have some that are now a year old.

I have 20ml plastic vials. I make a solution with 10ml water, 5ml Glycerin and 5ml yeast.

You have to be VERY sanitary when doing this.

Boil and cool some water, sterilize and/or sanitize the vials and everything else that will touch the solution.

Some people work next to an alcohol lamp which creates an updraft to keep airborne contaminates away. I work next to the burner on my stove.

I get my yeast from making a starter larger than what I need for the present brew. I use a medicine syringe to measure out the glycerin, water and yeast into the vials. I make up 4 vials which if I then made 4 more for 4 generations I could brew 256 times from the initial purchase. I then chill them in the refrigerator for at least a few hours then put them in the freezer surrounded by freezer packs to counteract the defrost cycle.

Here is a link to one of the threads that got me started: w.homebrewtalk.com/f13/guide-making-frozen-yeast-bank-35891/

Do a quick search and you will find many more.

Very cool, thanks!