Yeast harvesting - a NON-slant method

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Misplaced_Canuck

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Before you can propagate a yeast, you need to source a yeast. For the majority of us, this involves getting a pack of Wyeast, a vial of White Labs, or may be even a pack of dry yeast. It could also mean that you want to culture a yeast from another beer that's been bottled with live yeast.

For the purpose of this write-up, I will be using Wyeast #1007, that I purchased 2 weeks ago. The package is dated Sep 2011, which I'm happy with.

The first part of the process starts with "smacking the pack". Some will say that this isn't really necessary, but I like doing it, because it gives me the chance to prove that the yeast is indeed alive before we go any further.

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I smacked the inner pack by locating in a corner of the pack, and giving it a sharp blow, and I put it on the countertop to let it swell up.

I put the pack aside, and 4 hours later it was already showing some puffing, which I think is quite impressive.

This is at 12 hours. Also in the picture is a 1/2 gallon of wort that I will be using to make the initial starter.

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I use a growler to do my initial propagation when I use a new yeast. So I filled up my growler to the brim with a solution of water + sanitizer. I'm going to let it sit for a while, which depends on the contact time of the sanitizing solution.

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Once the growler has been sanitized, I empty about 90% of it.

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I then fill it about 1/2 way up with tap water to give it a rinse. The remaining 10% of the original solution, mixed with water, give me a very light solution of sanitizing fluid that I consider to be safe. Once drained, the minor remnants of sanitizer (a few droplets of very light concentration) will not damage the yeast cells once I fill the growler with the volume of wort that I will inoculate.

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I cover this with a square of aluminum foil. (I don't sanitize it, but it wouldn't hurt) until I'm ready to fill the growler.

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For the starter medium, I like to use a "near beer" of about 1.030 to 1.040. I do not use hops in that wort, but some people do. I've never really found the need for it. In my example here, I'm using a 1/2 gallon of wort that I made a while back, that I pressure cooked at 15PSI for 20 minutes.

The quantity of LME/DME required for a 1/2-gallon starter wort is approximately 6oz (weight) of DME, or 8 oz (weight) of liquid malt extract. This will get me right in the 1.030 to 1.040 range. This does not need to be super precise, it could even be 1.050 and it would be fine.

Since not everyone has access to a pressure cooker, the general idea would be to boil some water, add DME or LME, boil for 10 minutes, and chill the wort down to about 70F. Since the volume of the growler is 1/2 gallon, chilling that amount isn't too hard with an ice water bath. I will revisit this section on what needs to be done to ensure that the starter wort remains sanitized (near-sterile).

Before transferring the wort to the growler, I prepare a bowl with sanitizing solution, in which I put my scissors that I will used to cut the Wyeast pack, an airlock and rubber stopper, and the unopened Wyeast pack itself [One never knows what's living on the side of the wyeast packs!]

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Since my wort has been in a mason jar, I consider the contents to be sterile (provided the lid is still under vacuum). However, I do consider the edge of the mason jar (once the band and lid are removed) to not be sterile. As such, I use a small propane torch to heat up the side of the mason jar. I try to turn it around somewhat rapidly to prevent overheating and cracking the glass. I also do the same for the growler. I believe the growler glass is less heat-tolerant than the mason jars so I'm super-careful when flaming the neck (and it's also smaller so it takes less time).

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Once the contents of the mason jar is inside the growler, I again put a piece of foil, until I am ready to pour the contents of the Wyeast smack pack into the growler.

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Once I've had the wyeast pack and instruments in the sanitizing solution for the prescribed amount of time, I will grab the scissors, the wyeast pack, shake the wyeast pack to mix it up, and cut a small corner of the pack, and pour the contents of the pack into the growler, and put the foil back on the top until I assemble the airlock + stopper and put it on.

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At this point I've installed the airlock/stopper, and I gently stir the growler to mix everything up.

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I always open and smell the contents of the Wyeast pack to make sure everything was OK in the manufacturing process. It also gives me an idea of the smell of that yeast as it goes about its business.

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I then let the yeast do its business, at around 68F or so.

12 hours later, and I have significant activity in the growler, and the airlock is bubbling every 15 seconds.

[more to come]

M_C
 
At this point, I have two possibilities (I'm sure that there are more, but I'm only addressing 2):

Prepare a yeast starter for an upcoming batch
OR
Put this yeast into storage.

If you want to only put yeast into storage, scroll down to yeast storage.

If you want to prepare some yeast for an upcoming batch, read on:

After the yeast in the growler has reached high krausen, which is recognizable from the airlock activity, or by having krausen on top of the starter, you can then proceed to create a "secondary" stater from the original stater we made.

Edit: As it turns out, my growler completely fermented out in the 6-7 days I left it alone at 68F. That's OK, as it created a pretty nice yeast cake inside the growler:

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We will need:
An elernmeyer, or a flat-bottom container. I prefer glass as it's much harder to scratch than plastic.
Some more starter wort
A magnetic stir plate
A magnetic stir-bar.
Some more aluminum foil
A small propane torch+light
A bowl with sanitizing solution to hold the airlock/stopper while handling the growler.

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The process is rather simple:

Make sure your "labware" is clean. If you have residue from a previous yeast, make sure to get that out before continuing.

Add the stir-bar to the container, and fill it up with sanitizing solution at the proper concentration, all the way to the top. Let it soak for the prescribed amount of time for the given sanitizer.

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Before emptying the container, make sure to use a spare magnet to immobilize the stir bar inside the container. If you don't, the stir bar will drop to the bottom of the sink when you empty the container. After immobilizing the stir bar, do the 10% drain + 50% refill, and drain again. The I put some aluminum foil on top for now.

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I flame the necks of the erlenmeyer and the starter wort.

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Fill the container with the quantity of starter wort that you want. I use the Mr. Malty yeast calculator to figure out how much yeast I will need. Link: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html . Put foil on top again.

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Bring out the original starter, and stir it to rouse the yeast into suspension. Be careful if the growler is full, as it could make a volcano if you stir too much.

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(I decanted some of the clear wort from the original starter (leaving the yeast cake untouched) prior to this picture. No need to put yeast "poop" in the fresh starter wort)

Again, I will flame the neck of the growler to make sure everything is sanitized. I usually will use about 1/3 of the original starter volume to inoculate the new starter. So pour about 1/3 of the original starter into the new starter's container. Put foil on top of the new stater, and put the airlock back onto the original starter, after having sanitized it. For that, I use a soup bowl filled with sanitizing solution. As I remove the airlock from the growler, I set it in the bowl, and it goes back on top of the growler when I've taken the yeast I need.

[No picture of the pouring of original yeast into new starter as I don't have 2 sets of hands]

If you're using a stored yeast (like I've been doing in this write-up as well), make sure you bring the yeast up to room temperature a few hours beforehand, and that you shake the container well before putting it in the new starter.

Unshaken:
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Shaken:
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Using the spare magnet, align the stir bar towards the center of the container, and gently set it on top of the stir plate (after making sure that it's turned off!).

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(You can see some yeast cells at the bottom. Or... hot/cold break.)
 
Slowly turn up the speed of the stir plate, until you can see a slight funnel/vortex at the top of the starter wort.

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This is a video of the speed I use:



I want to point out that it's important to practice the method above with plain tap water BEFORE you do it with starter wort+yeast, as that solution won't make it easy to see inside it. So try out a good few times with plain water before you do so.

At this point, the only thing there is to do is wait for yeast to do its thing. If your original starter was strong and at high krausen, the new starter should be ready to pitch with 12 to 24 hours. I have to admit that it's a bit difficult to know if the new starter is going, as yeast activity can be difficult to see. If you see "floaters", then it's pretty obvious. But often times, the mixture will be somewhat opaque and hard to figure out.

This video shows two active yeast, #1968 (left) which has a very obvious 'chunks' and 3068 which is a lot less obvious:



If the stir bar gets thrown off, it was either turning too fast, or the container's bottom is not flat enough.
 
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The general idea behind cold-crashing is to concentrate the amount of solid yeast cells, while getting rid of as much of the liquid as possible. Why would we want to do that? Well, quite simply, it's to reduce the amount of liquid as to not dilute our soon-to-be-brewed batch of beer. Putting 1-liter of starter in 19-liter batch of beer "thins" our new beer by about 5%. It's not critical, but not perfect either.

The timeline I use for cold-crashing and augmenting, based on a very active yeast:

16-24 hours before pitch time: cold crash
12-20 hours before pitch time: decant, and add fresh wort, return to stir-plate. This should give the yeast time to augment while eating up the new wort.

Here's what my active yeast looked like just as I put it in the fridge to cold-crash:

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I locked the stir bar in the side of the erlenmeyers as I put them in the fridge, so that I don't have to do that when I am ready to decant.

After leaving it in the fridge for 2 hours (2 to 4 hours is generally sufficient - depends on the yeast strain), I can see a definite concentration of yeast at the bottom of the erlenmeyers. The 1099 did a better job at cold crashing than the 1007 - at 2 hours anyways.

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I ended up cold crashing both yeasts for around 4 hours. Once a yeast cake was established, I flamed the neck (once a gain - I think I just like working with a propane torch), and I decanted as much of the liquid as possible, while trying to not disturb the yeast cake.

I ended up with the following:

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Since I was going to brew 11 gallons of beer with each yeast, I decided to augment the amount of yeast cells available, by adding fresh wort to each erlenmeyer. I was around 200ml of yeast (mostly solid, some liquid), and I added 1 liter of wort to each erlen, giving me a total volume of 1.2 liter. Half of each erlenmeyer will go into 5.5 gallons of fresh wort, so 600ml of yeast solution for each 21-liter fermenter of fresh wort.

M_C
 
My growler of Wyeast 1007 has finished fermenting. I verified this by swirling the growler daily to check if any CO2 was still escaping. After approximately 2 weeks in the growler, no more gas is escaping. This is critical for my storage as the vials I use for storage do not handle much pressure and would pop their lid if there was pressure.

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I use the following vials for storage:

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They are not particularly hard to come by, however I did have to buy a gross (!) of them and I have probably more than I'll ever use :)

So I soak the vials in a sanitizing solution for the prescribed amount of time, as usual.

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I do the the same "drain 90% of solution, keep 10%, fill with water" job to do a final rinse. While I've got them filled + capped with the 10%+water, I keep them in the bowl of solution until I'm ready to fill them.

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I give the growler a good swirl to bring the yeast into suspension, while still having the airlock+stopper on top of the growler:

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I empty the vials into the bowl, and line up the soldiers for a fill. I also do the usual "burn the neck of the growler with a propane torch" job.

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After they are filled, I carefully close the lids on the vials, while avoiding putting my fingers on the rim of the yeast vial.

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After the lids are closed tightly, I give the vials a quick swim in the sanitizing solution, to remove any extra yeast on the outside of the container:

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I wrap a full loop of tape to hold the lids down (in case there is any CO2 that gets created), I label the vials with the yeast strain, the date, and the generation:

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After a few hours in the fridge, the yeast will have settled at the bottom:

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(Picture externally linked due to max 10 pics per post)

Finally, I rinse out the growler thoroughly, and I fill it with sanitizing solution and let sit for a while.

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(Picture externally linked due to max 10 pics per post)

M_C
 
Regenerating

Once I've used all of the original vials that I stored, OR at around 6-12 months (some factors may influence this), it becomes time to create a new generation before I run out of the current generation.

The yeast I am using is Wyeast 1028, second generation, that I had stored on 4/10/11, so roughly 10 months ago.

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I start by sanitizing a growler...

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... and sanitizing a stopper+airlock...

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...and also sanitizing the yeast vial.

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I do my aforementioned 10% drain, fill, and drain of the growler.

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And I cover them up with foil for now.

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I'm using canned (jarred) starter, and I briefly flame the neck of the mason jar to kill any bacteria on the lip of the jar.

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I then fill the growler with the wort solution and put fresh tin foil on the necks.

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I then carefully pour the contents of the yeast vial into the growler, and attach the airlock.

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Remember to mark your growler carefully. On the image above, I marked "1028 2->3" meaning generation 2 becoming generation 3.

[Astute readers will see that I also plan on brewing a hefeweizen this wk-end :D]

MC
 
[Thanks to Carl Foster for introducing me to wort canning!]

This is the procedure that I do to make stater wort and to can it in Mason jars.

The basic idea is pretty simple: Make wort, transfer it to mason jars, put in the pressure cooker, process at 15 PSI for 20 minutes, cool down.

First thing I need to know is how many jars of which volume I can fit in my pressure cooker. Mine holds 4x 1/2-gallon jars, and 1x 1-quart. So that's 2.25 gallons of wort.

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I start with 2.25 gallons of water. I know I will get evaporation, but that's OK as I need a bit of headroom on the mason jars to prevent overflowing while processing.

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Heat the water to a boil, turn off the heat, and add malt extract (either liquid or dry) and stir until dissolved.

The goal is a 1.030 to 1.040 wort.

Dry malt extract has approximately 1.045 per lb per gallon, so we need about 0.75 lbs of DME per gallon for a 1.035 wort
Liquid malt extract has approximately 1.036 per lb per gallon, so we need about 1 lbs of LME per gallon for a 1.036 wort

I have 2.25 gallons, so I used 2.25 lbs of liquid malt extract.

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Bring to a boil, and hold for 10 minutes.

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I then put the jars (pre-cleaned in the dishwasher) to be filled in the sink - easier to clean.

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Fill'er up! I leave about 1 inch of head space for expansion.

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I put the lids and bands on top, and tighten them (be careful, it's hot!). Then I put them in the processor, in which I put in 3 quarts of water and a tablespoon of vinegar (the vinegar prevents glass etching from the minerals in the water). The amount of water will vary from one pressure cooker to the next, so check your owner's manual.

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Safely attach the lid of the cooker, and crank up the heat until you reach 15 PSI on the dial.

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Then I back off the heat down to 2 (on my stove - will vary on others) and maintain 15 PSI for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes are over, turn the heat off, wait for the pressure to equalize, then remove the jars and let them cool down.

After cooled to room temperature, the starter wort is ready to use.
 
I imagine pc means pressure cook. This looks like good info. I already do a lot of this in washing yeast and managing my yeast collection, but thanks for posting your process with pics and videos. It's great to see how other people accomplish this stuff successfully.
 
I honestly think you could do without the blow torch. Your entire kitchen (and your body) is covered in microbes. You're not working in a clean room.....The benefits from sanitizing the outside lips of the mason jar, in my opinion, does not out weigh the dangers of burning yourself or kitchen. Everything else looks great!
 
I honestly think you could do without the blow torch. Your entire kitchen (and your body) is covered in microbes. You're not working in a clean room.....The benefits from sanitizing the outside lips of the mason jar, in my opinion, does not out weigh the dangers of burning yourself or kitchen. Everything else looks great!

Agreed. A kitchen isn't a clean room.

I could use alcohol wipes, sure. I've been using that blow torch "since forever" without issues and it works fine for me so there isn't much of a reason for me to change that process.

M_C
 
I imagine pc means pressure cook. This looks like good info. I already do a lot of this in washing yeast and managing my yeast collection, but thanks for posting your process with pics and videos. It's great to see how other people accomplish this stuff successfully.

I think I see what he meant.

Pressure cooking the starter in an erlenmeyer would take too much time for the heat-cook-cool cycle.

Having sterile-jarred wort is super convenient for me. Pull out a half-gallon jar, put in sanitized erlenmeyer, innoculate, and off we go. Takes me about 5-10 minutes to make a starter at the most.

M_C
 
Yeah, I meant pressure cook. I was just thinking that the whole procedure could be that much closer to sterile, rather than sanitary. If it's too much time then not worth it I suppose. I usually pc (all-am autoclave) the initial stages of starter step-up, and anything intended for longer-term storage. I just boil for anything over a couple liters, including the batch of beer of course. Nice write-up btw.

Another thing I do is wipe the outside of the WY packets with iso, rather than conventional sanitizer. Cleans them up better imo. Seen some gunk from the lhbs on the outside of them before. Also, I like tearing the packets rather than cutting. Then pour from the middle of the tear, rather than the end where you have to start the tear with your fingers. Maybe anal, but so is flaming the lips of jars.
 
Awesome work Misplaced_Canuck!

Very in depth and extremely easy to follow! Thanks for the sweet write up.
 
I think your process is great but I think their might be an easier way. Here is what I do.
1. 1L starter with Erlenmeyer Flask on a stirplate. I use a fresh vial of White Labs yeast.
2. Crash it after a day or two.
3. Make a 2L starter. Decant the first starter and pour the yeast into the 2L starter and put on a stirplate for a day or two.
4. Crash it for a day and decant the liquid on top. Here's where it gets good..
5. I know through yeast calculators that I have made approx 500m cells. On average White Lab vial hold 100m cells. I sanitize 5 old White Lab vials and pour the yeast into them and cap them. I now have 5 vials of "fresh" yeast for upcoming beers.
 
I think your process is great but I think their might be an easier way. Here is what I do.
1. 1L starter with Erlenmeyer Flask on a stirplate. I use a fresh vial of White Labs yeast.
2. Crash it after a day or two.
3. Make a 2L starter. Decant the first starter and pour the yeast into the 2L starter and put on a stirplate for a day or two.
4. Crash it for a day and decant the liquid on top. Here's where it gets good..
5. I know through yeast calculators that I have made approx 500m cells. On average White Lab vial hold 100m cells. I sanitize 5 old White Lab vials and pour the yeast into them and cap them. I now have 5 vials of "fresh" yeast for upcoming beers.

Certainly not a bad way to propagate, however I'm not sure that I'd want to use one of those 5 vials after, say, 6 months, without doing a starter. So... It comes back around to making a starter.

FYI I updated the cold-crashing + augmenting post.

M_C
 
Certainly not a bad way to propagate, however I'm not sure that I'd want to use one of those 5 vials after, say, 6 months, without doing a starter. So... It comes back around to making a starter.

FYI I updated the cold-crashing + augmenting post.

M_C

You're right...but I always make starters anyways so for me it's no big deal.
 
It's been brought to my attention that there are some possible issues with "petite mutation" (which I renamed "Stunned Growth").

The source of this is the cold-crashing, specifically when reducing the temperature by 10F in a short period of time.

I'm going to review my process and edit the write-up accordingly.

M_C
 
Maybe this was asked, but why can't you just mix up some DME and water, add that to the jars, add the jars with loose lids to the pressure cooker and cook for 20 min at 15psi? Then turn off the heat and then wait for everything to cool. The lids should seal themselves to the jars as everything cools together.

Why boil the wort at all, won't it cook at 250* in the pressure cooker? I know you need to let grain wort breath to drive off DMS, but the DME has already been boiled once. All you are doing is sterilizing it.

Everything would be shelf-stable at this point, no?

Oh, by the way, great write up!
 
Maybe this was asked, but why can't you just mix up some DME and water, add that to the jars, add the jars with loose lids to the pressure cooker and cook for 20 min at 15psi? Then turn off the heat and then wait for everything to cool. The lids should seal themselves to the jars as everything cools together.

Why boil the wort at all, won't it cook at 250* in the pressure cooker? I know you need to let grain wort breath to drive off DMS, but the DME has already been boiled once. All you are doing is sterilizing it.

Everything would be shelf-stable at this point, no?

Oh, by the way, great write up!

This is exactly what Jamil Zainasheff suggested in a brew strong episode I recently listened to. In that episode John Palmer also suggested that if you use DME to mix it with cold water to avoid clumping.
 
This is exactly what Jamil Zainasheff suggested in a brew strong episode I recently listened to. In that episode John Palmer also suggested that if you use DME to mix it with cold water to avoid clumping.

Great to hear. I had kinda planned this out in my head to do one day and this was my game plan. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing.
 
I use LME for the start wort, I've never tried just mixing it in the mason jars.

The extra time really isn't "extra time", as it would take nearly as much longer in the pressure cooker to bring up warmish water+LME/DME up to temperature in the pressure cooker.

It already takes a solid 20+ minutes to bring the cooker to 15 PSI at full heat.

I originally intended to remove the hot break but I gave up on that.

M_C
 
M_C

Great write up, good photos and great info.

How long have you been able to keep the yeast in the vials in the refrigerator without loosing a significant amount of viability? Have you pitched into a starter and had success after 2, 3, 6 or 8 months or more?
Just curious on what one could expect as far as storage.

Jerry
 
M_C

Great write up, good photos and great info.

How long have you been able to keep the yeast in the vials in the refrigerator without loosing a significant amount of viability? Have you pitched into a starter and had success after 2, 3, 6 or 8 months or more?
Just curious on what one could expect as far as storage.

Jerry

I'm at 12 months on my oldest yeast. No problems. Takes a 2-3 days for the starter to get going but no other issues.

MC
 
I was confused by the 10% water & starsan solution but I reread the entire write up and I got it now. To clarify after you put the yeast in the vials you can refridgerate that yeast for months?
 
I was confused by the 10% water & starsan solution but I reread the entire write up and I got it now. To clarify after you put the yeast in the vials you can refridgerate that yeast for months?

Yes, provided that 1) Your vials were sanitized properly 2) You do a starter for your next batch. The contents of the vials are not "ready to pitch".

MC
 
MC,

I would like to thank you for a very detailed and well-documented (series of) post(s)! I have been reading a lot about yeast propagation, storage and handling and this is one of the more practical, "hands on" descriptions of the process that I have read.

I have "read" a great deal more than I have "done", but I am obsessed with sanitation when it comes to anything post-boil. I ferment in Sanke kegs that have been boiled with sanitizer in them and drained/covered. I transfer my wort directly from the boil kettle to the Sanke fermenter while the wort is @ a rolling boil, and let the Sanke cool (sealed) over night before pitching my yeast. (I pressurize the Sanke with O2 and shake it vigorously prior to pitching the yeast, and consider this step and the actual pitching of the yeast as the weakest links of sanitation in my process. ie the only time my wort has any ambient exposure.)

I am just starting with yeast "washing", "starters" and storage. I purchased one 1L Erlenmeyer Flask "starter kit" a few weeks back and have four more 1L and five 2L flasks + various stoppers on order.

(SIDE NOTE: http://www.ArtistSupplySource.com has 1L bromex Flasks for $6.70 each and 2L Bromex Flasks for $9.10 each. Their shipping is high for one or two flasks (~$15), but does not increase much as quantities increase; all 9 flasks I ordered, with shipping totaled a few cents South of $100; $72.30 + $27.22 S&H = $99.52 . I thought that was a pretty good deal. Oddly, their prices on stoppers are quite high, so I ordered them elsewhere.)

I have been "practicing" by using small quantities of my pitching yeasts to create "mock starters". I go through the whole process then simply pour the "mock starter" down the drain on the next brew day. ( I am simply too worried about sanitation/contamination to trust my "mock starters" yet, but I am gaining confidence and almost ready to actually use one of them. To date I have had no "off smells" or any signs of contamination, in my "mock starters", so I am beginning to think I am on the right track.)

One question for you (or anyone else): I have been thinking I might be better-off harvesting yeast from my fermenter during active fermentation. This would be easy to achieve after ~day four of the fermentation process by simply pressurizing the Sanke "air tube" with CO2 and running some of the wort/cake up the racking cane through a sanitized hose into a flask. I am thinking at this time the yeast/cake would be full of very viable yeast, and the process should not endanger the fermenting wort as there would be no exposure to ambient. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

This a picture of two of my fermenters:

Fermenters.jpg


One has a "blow-off tube" because it is "early in the process", the other has a bubbler because it is nearly done :). As you can see, attaching a CO2 tank to the "relief tube" would be trivial, and the racking arm is already "all the way down", so extracting yeast using CO2 ****should**** be easy and sanitary (at least that is my thought, but I am ASKING not telling).

Thank you again for these great posts, they have helped me build confidence.

Fish
 
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