TahoeRy
Well-Known Member
I need some yeast help. I am trying to spread my dollar a bit in regards to my yeast cost. Every time I make a starter for a brew, I make a little bigger than normal yeast starter and bottle some slurry prior to pitching to save some prime yeast for my next beer. I always sanitize everything and keep the bottles of yeast I collect in a refrigerator for the next time I need to make a starter. This has worked great for me so far until my last brew. I brewed a beer on Sunday and added my newest yeast starter made from these bottles. Usually I see active fermentation within 12 hours but on my brews but this time, nothing. Tons of yeast settlement at the bottom of my carboy but not an active fermentation. I pitched the yeast at a good temp (72) and aerated with o2 for 1.5 minutes. Everything was sterile. This was the 4th time reusing the yeast that i bottled and i usually reuse the bottled yeast within 2-3 weeks as I have several that I have started rotating. I know yeast can get tired after washing from a primary fermentation and can only be reused around 5-6 times before a new culture needs to be created. My question here is why am I experiencing a slow start when I have only had great fermentations up to this point? Shouldn't my yeast be able to go further considering that I am not washing it or stressing it out from primary fermentations? I was hoping to just be able to keep making starters from these bottles and harvesting a new bottle prior to pitching into a new batch. Am I going about this the wrong way? Am I hoping for to much here? should I just go back to buying yeast for every few batches and not try to keep a non frozen bank of yeast that I can pull from?
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Thanks in advance for any responses.