how to cultivate my own yeasts

Sorry for asking what is obviously a noob question but I am confused by the terms. I do not want to wash old yeasts I just want to be able to buy fewer vials and packs of liquid yeast to lower costs. I did a batch of beer with dry yeast with decent results but the best batches seem to come from liquid. I have messed around with doing starters but to be honest I've never had trouble with slow fermenting before and do not think it is necessary for me.

However, it seems that I could make a very large batch of "starter" and store up some of it in mason jars for later batches. I suspect it is just not that simple though.

Can anyone explain what the process of growing/cultivating the yeasties from an existing batch is called so I can find the instructions on my own? Or better yet there's probably already a howto here I just need a link.

Thanks in advance!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FE0LQ9A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


everything you would want to know and more is in this book.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slanting-yeast-133103/

This explains it very well.

Psycotte said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slanting-yeast-133103/

This explains it very well.

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Well that is what I was looking for, had no idea what "slanting" meant. After reading that I think I'll stick with buying powdered. Was hoping it was much easier and I could just save some starter.

THANKS!

Edbert said:

Well that is what I was looking for, had no idea what "slanting" meant. After reading that I think I'll stick with buying powdered. Was hoping it was much easier and I could just save some starter.

THANKS!

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Anytime. That's what we are here for. Helping each other brew better beer.

Edbert said:

Was hoping it was much easier and I could just save some starter.

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You could do that, the only issue is, the yeast will only last a few weeks. With slanting, they will last a year or more.

I prefer not to slant my yeast stocks, and freeze them instead. I get better viability and it is far less tedious.

Starting with the technique you mentioned...When I am planning on saving some yeast, I basically make a very large starter. When the starter has fermented out, I decant off the spent wort, add glycerol/glycerin (cryopreservative) to reach a 10% concentration and mix thoroughly. I then transfer about 40ml of the thick yeast slurry to 50ml vials and freeze them in a cooler in my chest freezer. When I need the to use the stock, I defrost the vial and make a starter. I have defrosted and used yeast stocks that have been in my freezer for years with great success.

Plating/slanting has its uses. I have used that approach to isolate wild yeast many times. But for the long-term storage of bulk material, freezing is the best approach.

ColoHox said:

Plating/slanting has its uses. I have used that approach to isolate wild yeast many times. But for the long-term storage of bulk material, freezing is the best approach.

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I maintained several brewing yeast cultures for ten years on slant with two year master stock subculture periods (the only reason why the cultures did not last longer is because I lost interest in the hobby). The cultures retained 100% purity because they were plated before being slanted, and all slant-to-slant subcultures were aseptic transfers. Working with -20C or -30C frozen stocks may be more convenient than slanting, but the cultures are lower quality. Short of -70C or lower storage, slants provide the longest viability period because slanted yeast is healthy yeast with ample sterol and UFA stores.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

Brulosopher's post linked above got me started culturing yeast. I use baby soda bottle test tubes instead of Mason jars to store mine in the refrigerator. The test tubes closely approximate the White Labs tubes. White Labs tubes generally have about a 2 inch yeast cake at the bottom of them for 100 billion cells. I use that to make a rough estimate of how many cells I have in each tube. I'm about 5 months out doing this and have had no problems with fermentation yet.

All I do when I need a new strain is obviously buy the vial/smashpack and make a 4l starter with it. Once the starter is fermented out I cold crash decant and split the slurry up into 4 sanitized mason jars. And when ever I get close to running out of a certain strain I just make another starter. It's that easy you never have to wash or buy yeast again. Unless you need a new strain of coarse. Hope this helps.

Have a look at my yeast harvesting, a non-slant method.

MC

I successfully propagate using starters and mason jars. Starting with a vial or smackpack, I do a 2L, DME, stir plated, starter and let it finish, then cold crash it. Pour off the starter beer to about 1L and remix on the stir plate. Sanitize three pint mason jars and evenly distribute the slurry. Voila, three vials worth of yeast slurry, two for batches and one in the bank. No washing out trub or hop bits or even boiling extra water. I run a 2L starter a week before brew day for batches. Ales get one step, lagers get two steps.

Per advice on HBT, I store under the beer with no problems. I've stored for up to 9 months at refrigerator temperatures and the starter stepped up just fine, although an extra 12-24 hours of lag was experienced. The actual batch fermentation took off with normal lag.

EarlyAmateurZymurgist said:

I maintained several brewing yeast cultures for ten years on slant with two year master stock subculture periods (the only reason why the cultures did not last longer is because I lost interest in the hobby). The cultures retained 100% purity because they were plated before being slanted, and all slant-to-slant subcultures were aseptic transfers. Working with -20C or -30C frozen stocks may be more convenient than slanting, but the cultures are lower quality. Short of -70C or lower storage, slants provide the longest viability period because slanted yeast is healthy yeast with ample sterol and UFA stores.

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Like I mentioned, plating/slanting has it use, especially when isolating pure cultures. However, for long-term storage, freezing is superior.

It is fantastic that you have been able to maintain cultures on slants for years. You have posted this finding dozens of times.

From a physiological point of view, freezing with a cryoprotectant preserves cell integrity and reduces oxidation, maintaining healthy yeast. Do you store your slants in the fridge after they grow?

Once the yeast cells have grown through their exponential growth phase, and entered stationary growth, they have accumulated all the unsaturated fatty acids and sterols they will need for future growth. In the fridge, the cells are no longer growing and will not be uptaking lipds. Sterols are involved in cell wall permeability during aerobic growth and fermentation, neither of which are important during long-term storage. In fact, in rich media (which wort is), reserves of unsaturated fatty acids and sterols are not required for growth. In yeast, these molecules are used as building blocks for membrane lipids, not as energy reserves. Do you purge oxygen from your slants during storage? If not, oxidation is much more of a concern than lipid accumulation during long term storage.

Based on past posts, you will likely keep slanting. I will continue freezing my yeast stocks. In my laboratory and homebrewing experience, this practice is less time consuming and results in healthier cultures.

So are you saying you plate first, then only take the pure cultures. How would you distinguish between pure and non pure cultures.
What procedure do you use for plating, and do you plate from fresh yeast pack, or from previously slanted yeast.