Splitting a Starter

I'm planning on brewing a blonde ale this weekend, and I'll probably be making a starter Wednesday night. What I'm wondering is, can I shake up my vial of White Labs, pour half into my DME mini-wort, put the cap back on, and save the other half? Or should I make two starters simultaneously, and put one in the fridge for safe-keeping after a few days?

You can do that, but you'd want to make a really large starter (probably at least a gallon.)

If it were me make a starter, pitch the whole thing, and then harvest the yeast and re-pitch it for the next batch. (Or pitch right on the yeast cake if the timing of brewday is right.)

I brewed an IPA with harvested yeast slurry last night. No starter or nothing: I just pitched half a mason jar of slurry. There was positive pressure in the airlock within an hour, and when I got up about 5 hours later, it was bubbling away. The point is just to pitch a lot of yeast cells. A 5 gallon batch is basically just a whopping huge starter for the next batch.

cweston,

Did you just put the slurry from a previous batch into a clean mason jar? How did you store it?

I would make a starter and take some of the yeast off that for the future given the choices. Personally, I harvest the yeast or reuse it right off as cweston said.

aseelye said:

cweston,

Did you just put the slurry from a previous batch into a clean mason jar? How did you store it?

Click to expand...

Yep: I wash roughly according to this procedure...

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hbrew/hbyewash.htm

Then I store it in a sanitized mason jar. I release the pressure every few days. I used to put the slurry in beer bottles but I've had a few build up way too much pressure. Even with washing, it's hard to get *all* of the sugars out of there, so they still produce some CO2 for a little while.

I wash, but I have split a vial or two in my time without any problems.

Just make a larger starter a few more days out from bewing day.

Thanks cweston, have another bookmark now