Storing a starter in capped bottles

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
L

Llarian

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
272
Reaction score
3
Location
Seattle, WA
I know, another starter question.

I'm looking to store portions of a starter I just made in capped sanitized bottles for 4-8 weeks. I don't have any good way to sterilize the bottles, so I was thinking of using StarSan to sanitize the bottles and caps thoroughly, then adding about 6oz of starter to each bottle and capping them.

Has anybody done this? Do you think it'll last for a couple months?

Any other approach I might take would be appreciated as well. =)

Thanks,
Dylan
 
Yeast+sugar+capped bottle= bottle rocket. Unless you want to put everything together and refridgerate immediately. Then on brew day, bring it out of the fridge and replace cap with stopper and airlock. That might work.
Your better bet would be bottles with drilled stoppers and airlocks on them. This is what I use.



Dan
 
Must refrigerate!

But one way also is to make the stater in the beer bottle let it set a couple of days (with air lock) then cap and refrigerate. I am working on propagating the yeast out of some Oberon Bottles this way and then I can re-cap and save for later.
 
The starter has fermented out, so I can't imagine there will be too much activity left. I'm still seeing a few little bubbles, but very very little at this point. I might relieve the pressure and re-cap every so often I suppose.

(Forgot to mention I'm splitting a finished 2L starter, the bulk of which I'm using in a brew on Saturday)

Refrigeration is a given.

I'll give it a shot.

-D
 
As long as you refrigerate it i don't see the need to relive any pressure from them. the yeast should go to sleep and rest.

Cheers
 
Well, I threw a few bottles of it in the refrigerator, but I'm afraid it might be off...

It looks great, the fermentation went as expected, and there was a nice layer of flocculant yeast on the bottom. (Wyeast 1272)

However, it smells... Well, it kinda smells like a new rubber stopper, but that was the starter liquid after I poured some aside. It tasted a bit like stale corona or a lightstruck lager.

I added another 500ml of wort to the remainder of the starter and put the bottles in the refrigerator anyways, but now I'm not sure if I should use it.

Is there any way other than smell to determine is a starter is off? I haven't done a starter before, so I'm not really sure what it should smell like when correct. It smelled pretty beer-like during the fermentation.

-D
 
[Is there any way other than smell to determine is a starter is off? I haven't done a starter before, so I'm not really sure what it should smell like when correct. It smelled pretty beer-like during the fermentation./QUOTE]

Your nose would know if it went South on you.
Click to expand...
 
Heh. My nose isn't sure if it just smells yeasty, or is it smells nasty. =) What it doesn't smell like, is fermented beer, but since its a relativly small amount of beer and a huge amount of yeast, (and its made of nothing but light DME), I'm not terribly surprised at that.

-D
 
[Is there any way other than smell to determine is a starter is off? I haven't done a starter before, so I'm not really sure what it should smell like when correct. It smelled pretty beer-like during the fermentation.
Click to expand...

Your nose would know if it went South on you.
 
Llarian said:
Heh. My nose isn't sure if it just smells yeasty, or is it smells nasty. =) What it doesn't smell like, is fermented beer, but since its a relativly small amount of beer and a huge amount of yeast, (and its made of nothing but light DME), I'm not terribly surprised at that.

-D
Click to expand...

I don't know how many other posts (from other forums) I've read of heartbroken homebrewers washing yeasts and storing them in fridges and opeing them up a few weeks later and the smell told them it went bad...but as I read here, I get the idea that a "by-product" of storing yeast in a fridge, maybe with headspace, just plain out stinks? Maybe the yeast isn't bad? Anyone else?
 

Similar threads

z-bob
Bottle conditioning beer using champagne yeast
Replies
9
Views
529
deuc224
D
F
cleaning and storing PET bottle (pop bottles)
Replies
9
Views
1K
fluketamer
F
Ali01
Is it a bad idea to transfer already bottle carbed beer to new bottles?
Replies
13
Views
1K
mac_1103
mac_1103
R
DIY Propper/Fast Pitch?
Replies
4
Views
525
hottpeper13
H
DonT
Mash Caps... Let me see what you got!
2
Replies
77
Views
4K
Bassman2003
B
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top