Saving Yeast

Lots of yeast topics this week, huh? Anyway, I was wondering about the procedure for saving yeast from a current batch. I racked a Belgian Tripel to secondary tonite. I filled a pint mason jar with trub from the primary and put it in the fridge. Is this OK, just like it is? Can I use this to make a starter later on? How long can I save it? Oh, BTW, This is a White Labs liquid yeast.

It should be fine as long as the container you put it in was sanitized, and you keep it that way.

I harvest out of the primary and have had no problems.

You can save it several months safely, btw. If you save it longer, make a starter prior to pitching it again to ensure its viability.

If you practiced good sanitation should be no problems reusing the yeast. It should keep for many months in the fridge but will require building a starter as mentioned. A precaution, a sealed glass container with yeast is not a good idea. A have flasks with yeast in the fridge with rubber stoppers, some have blown off the stoppers. So far has been isolated to lager yeast but you see the potentional. Anyway, a mason jar with yeast. For future starters, sanitize the jar prior to opening, sanitize whatever you use to pull the slurry out of the jar to start your starter (I like to use a turkey baster, of course dedicated for this purpose) sanitize lid prior to resealing and place back in fridge. How many times you can do this is the question. This may be left to your best judgement.

You should be fine storing yeast that way. Check out the yeast harvesting link in my signature for info on getting it "clean."

Does it matter if the bottle is half full or does it need to be filled near the brim?

Also I read that the primary trub is no good because it contains debris etc that you dispose of when you transfer the wort to the secondary (or the keg/bottles).

Also, theoreretically if somebody recycled the yeast perpetually could this result in anything weird happening or would the results be totally predictable and normal?

Btw that link in your signature isnt working.

I figure that to recycle the yeast, the likelyhood is i'll crack open a bottle from the last batch, drink 3/4 of it, then use the yeast at the bottom to make a starter.

Alternatively I could just some of this 'naturally carbonated' beer from the offlicense. Even if it costs a wee bit more, im saving money really since I dont have to go out and spend a gold coin on a sachet, AND it hasnt been freeze dried

Do a search on yeast washing and you will pretty much get all the info you need or you can check out this link http://www.wyeastlab.com/hbrew/hbyewash.htm from wyeast, this is the method I have used and it worked quite well for me.

To answer you question about perpetual reuse; it's not a good idea to go past the 4th or 5th generation of yeast as the strain mutates with each use, eventually you will have a highly flocculant yeast that may produce unexpected taste results.

If you plan on using it more than a week from bottling I would definitely wash it first before storing it.

I always wash my yeast...doing some right now as a matter of fact...

Thanx alot for all the tips! I learn something new every time I come here.