Taking yeast from a starter for future batches?

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ea1154

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I am very new to home brewing so keep that in mind. I was wondering if I can take a portion of the yeast starter and put in back in the vile the original yeast came in and store it (up to 3 months) for use in a starter for another batch. how many times could you repeat this cycle before wanting to buy a new yeast culture? I understand all the sanitation and things that would go along with this I am just unsure if the yeast would go bad or taste funny. I usually use about 2/3 cup of extra light DME and about 3 1/2 cups of water with some yeast nutrient in my starter if that matters?


-Eric
 
The way I understand it, you are probably making a starter about the correct size for a single batch of standard gravity wort. You can certainly take some for a vial and put it away for future uses if you'd like - it's a relatively small amount IMO. You should do a comparison from the height in MM of the original vial of settled yeast and your new vial of settled yeast to get a estimation of yeast cells. For instance, if the original had 50 cm of settled yeast (~100 billion cells) and your new vial has 25 cm of settled yeast then you're looking at about 50 billion cells. The next time you use this vial you'll want to build it up to a correct number of yeast cells before pitching - it may take 2 steps next time. Play around with yeastcalc.com to see what kind of yeast populations can be achieved with different starter sizes.

I'm still very new to yeast starters but that's my thoughts on it.

I think a better option, if your beer is 1.060 or less, is to wash the yeast from your primary fermenter for a later batch. Or alternatively, collect half of the yeastcake for pitching into a new batch (assuming your new batch will be ready within 2 days or so).
 
I save some yeast from starters but here is what I do. Make a bigger starter by a pint. Then sanitize a pint mason jar and fill it for saving. It's just like yeast washing however there is little to no trub present. It's got to be cleaner in my opinion. I have heard to only take a pack of yeast ten generations or else you have to worry about serious mutations.
 
Awesome! Thanks everyone for the quick responses! I think I'll do a 'two step propagation' on the starter I started yesterday so I have a higher cell count and use the mason jar half full with sterilized water like in the article!

-Eric
 
I do this all the time with my bottle harvested yeast. Make a big starter, then pour some off in to a mason jar at high krausen. I'll use this for my next starter and step it up till I have enough to pitch. I'll then wash the yeast cake from each batch into 3 or 4 pint jars,step those up, and have enough for 8 more batches. I'll wash each of those cakes, and put each one into one large quart mason and have a pitchable amount in each of the 8 jars. After that I'll start over again with a fresh harvest.
 
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