Yeast starter shelf life?

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Prost!

Prost!

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I brewed my first yeast starter at 5 p.m. on Friday. I'm planning on brewing a batch of beer tomorrow, Monday. Since it's just a mini batch of beer, can I leave it at fermentation temperature for a week or more? Should I leave the starter in my basement at 66*F or move it to the fridge? Also, looks like fermentation has slowed a little, should I aggitate the flask to help get things going again?

Yeast Starter.3.JPG
 
Any starter is an improvement over just pitching a pack of liquid yeast. I would have made a larger starter and pitched at high krausen if possible. I hope you are doing an ale as that don't look to be enough to go with a lager. If it is for a lager than it will have a slow lag time.
Cheers.
 
Prost! said:
I brewed my first yeast starter at 5 p.m. on Friday. I'm planning on brewing a batch of beer tomorrow, Monday. Since it's just a mini batch of beer, can I leave it at fermentation temperature for a week or more? Should I leave the starter in my basement at 66*F or move it to the fridge? Also, looks like fermentation has slowed a little, should I aggitate the flask to help get things going again?
Click to expand...
Generally if I'm not gonna be able to use it on the second or third day I put it in the fridge until the day before I can use it. However, as long as your sanitation is good, I see no reason that it can't sit out for a week. If you're going to make a habit of leaving them out long tho, I'd get a stopper/airlock instead of using aluminum foil.

As for agitating it...it probably won't do much good at this point...after 48 hours it should be getting close to fermented out.

Hey Boo Boo...no offense intended here, and that's good information...but what does it have to do with the question he asked? :confused:
 
You could always 'feed it' with more sanitised wort to get the numbers up and stretch it out.
 
I've read that starters will keep for a couple of weeks in a jug like that.

After washing, I pour the yeast/sediment into beer bottles with an airlock until the yeast falls out of the liquid.

I sanitize the tubes/vials (airtight) they come in and refill them with mostly yeast and they stay good another couple of months.
 
boo boo said:
Any starter is an improvement over just pitching a pack of liquid yeast. I would have made a larger starter and pitched at high krausen if possible. I hope you are doing an ale as that don't look to be enough to go with a lager. If it is for a lager than it will have a slow lag time.
Cheers.
Click to expand...

It's bigger than it looks (if I had a nickel for everytime I've said that) that's a 1000 ml flask, probably 3+ cups of liquid in the starter. It' for an ale.
 
Last brew I did I made my starter and it hit full kraeusen a little early so, as I've read in the past, I fridged it for a day which settled out the yeast pretty nice. On brewday I pulled it out in the morning, decanted the liquid, and let it warm up to room temp. By pitching time it was foaming again and got off to a really quick start.

Just another option for next time, though I don't think you'll have any problems with that starter being at room temp since Friday if your sanitation practices were sound.
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Last brew I did I made my starter and it hit full kraeusen a little early so, as I've read in the past, I fridged it for a day which settled out the yeast pretty nice. On brewday I pulled it out in the morning, decanted the liquid, and let it warm up to room temp. By pitching time it was foaming again and got off to a really quick start.

Just another option for next time, though I don't think you'll have any problems with that starter being at room temp since Friday if your sanitation practices were sound.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks. I'll try that. Why decant the liquid? Why not pitch the whole starter? It's all good stuff. I made mine with 1/2 cup of Ultralight LME because I don't have any DME right now.
 
The liquid doesn't really bring anything to the party, although I'll grant you that in most cases it probably doesn't hurt. But I shake my starters to get maximum yeast production and worry about stale, oxidized flavors from the starter liquid. Also note that I make 2L starters, and just don't need all that liquid...all I'm looking for ideally is pure yeast.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I sanitize the tubes/vials (airtight) they come in and refill them with mostly yeast and they stay good another couple of months.
Click to expand...

I am planning on doing the same thing in White Labes vials. Do you harvest from the secondary after you've racked for bottling/kegging?
 
Prost! said:
I am planning on doing the same thing in White Labes viles. Do you harvest from the secondary after you've racked for bottling/kegging?
Click to expand...

I think the general consensus for yeats washing is to obtian your trub from the PRIMARY fermenter and not the secondary. (If I recall, this is because you want the yeast that flocculated early and not the ones that hung around in the beer for more than a week before falling out of suspension.)

Not 100% sure here, though. I just make big starters, pitch half and save the other half for a near future brew.

-walker
 
Prost! said:
I am planning on doing the same thing in White Labes viles.
Click to expand...
It's certainly OK to reuse the White Labs vials...as long as they're properly cleaned and sanitized. Don't use the viles however...they're vile. ;)
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I always harvest from the PRIMARY then I wash it.:D
Click to expand...

since were on this topic now, how long does washed yeast from the primary last in a refrigerated state? i have some that have been sealed up for a couple of months.
 
El Pistolero said:
Generally if I'm not gonna be able to use it on the second or third day I put it in the fridge until the day before I can use it. However, as long as your sanitation is good, I see no reason that it can't sit out for a week. If you're going to make a habit of leaving them out long tho, I'd get a stopper/airlock instead of using aluminum foil.

As for agitating it...it probably won't do much good at this point...after 48 hours it should be getting close to fermented out.

Hey Boo Boo...no offense intended here, and that's good information...but what does it have to do with the question he asked? :confused:
Click to expand...

Not much, I guess, and no offense taken.
1000 ml isn't bad but I make a gallon starter for my lagers. As yours is a ale you should have no problems with that amount.
 
subwyking said:
since were on this topic now, how long does washed yeast from the primary last in a refrigerated state? i have some that have been sealed up for a couple of months.
Click to expand...
I've used them months later without any problems.

You know you're not supposed to breathe on yeast (contamination), but I usually exhale first then inhale the yeast fumes to get a good whiff to make sure it still smells good.
 

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