Live Yeast, Dead Yeast

n00b question: are the yeasties at the bottom of the fermentation vessel all basically dead? The live yeast is in suspension?

Nope, the yeast at the bottom is mostly just dormant but still alive.

Check the yeast washing sticky. You can harvest that yeast really easily and get enough viable yeast to ferment your next four batches. Huge $ saver.

Eh. A packet of yeast costs less than a dollar. That's huge?

If the yeasties are dormant, how do you get them back in action?

You can get them going again with more sugars. They go dormant when they've eaten all the fermentable sugars.

(And liquid yeast runs around $7, so reusing that adds up!)

Really dumb question. So a washed yeast can make 4 batches. Could you technically split it in 4, and then make 4 batches from each of those 4 batches, leading to an exponental increase of batches that can be made with "free" yeast?

CreamyGoodness said:

Could you technically split it in 4, and then make 4 batches from each of those 4 batches, leading to an exponental increase of batches that can be made with "free" yeast?

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Absolutely! Take good care of their health and you can have a nearly unlimited supply of yeast, but some people will argue that you shouldn't re-use yeast after the Xth generation, because you may start getting changes in the flavor profiles. (X being 4, 7, 10, whatever.)

I forsee getting a packet of every yeast known and starting a yeast farm so I dont have to go to the homebrew store (which is far away).

CreamyGoodness said:

I forsee getting a packet of every yeast known and starting a yeast farm so I dont have to go to the homebrew store (which is far away).

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The only problem with that is that the viability of stored yeast decreases over time, so yeast that you don't use and re-harvest often will be less viable than recently harvested yeast. If keeping a yeast library is something you are interested, there is quite a bit of information around about doing it. Some people use slants and store them in a freezer. I prefer to just have 2-3 strains of yeast in jars in my fridge, and I'll just sub one of those yeasts into a recipe or I'll culture some yeast from a microbrew if I'm not in a hurry.