Capturing yeast

If I have captured yeast and there is a healthy amount of beer left on it, how long is it viable in the fridge?

How long is lme good in the fridge? I bought fresh in bulk at lhbs.

Pillsburyjoboy said:

If I have captured yeast and there is a healthy amount of beer left on it, how long is it viable in the fridge?

How long is lme good in the fridge? I bought fresh in bulk at lhbs.

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It will be useless after ~4 months. But I would use it within 2-3 weeks.

A couple weeks with the yeast. I've kept LME in the fridge for about three months that was still good.

I have around 20 yeast strains in my fridge which I continually re-harvest from the starter before pitching. Ive found they can last longer than a year as long as you do proper starter practices. Like for a year old yeast, it start with a smaller starter and step up

I just made a new starter from 2 small amounts of yeast I had saved from previous starters. Those had been in the fridge for over a year, also stored under starter beer, like yours. 24 hours on the stir plate grew a nice new amount, but not quite enough to pitch into a 4 gallon batch. I ramped it up one more time, quickly, before pitching. Bubbling away nicely within 12 hours.

Key is, depending on the age of that yeast, you may need to make a starter to get enough active cells to pitch. The more time between last use and new use, the more cells will have died off. If you have 1/2 pint of slurry and it's less than 3 months old, stored in the fridge, it is probably just fine, decant and pitch the half pint, add some of your new wort to make it pourable.

See Mr. Malty.

Here is my slurry- queasy 1056 American pale. You can see the volume and it is probable approaching two months. What is my best approach to a starter? Or should I pour off the beer and pitch as is?

I would make a starter, but first try washing it. That looks like its mostly trub but im sure theres a decent amount of yeast in there. This is why I harvest my yeast from my starters. It gets me clean, unstressed yeast that hasnt been exposed to hop compounds.

Wash, starter, pitch. It will keep for a year ..... but you will still need to wash, starter, pitch.

LME will keep for a year or more in the fridge. Hell, 2 years. It is just syrup.

The problem with LME is that it darkens over time. Flavor doesn't change. Changes are slowed in the fridge.

It will keep a long time. Just ramp up with a starter.

What is best way to activate this as a starter?

m00ps said:

I would make a starter, but first try washing it. That looks like its mostly trub but im sure theres a decent amount of yeast in there. This is why I harvest my yeast from my starters. It gets me clean, unstressed yeast that hasnt been exposed to hop compounds.

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I just started doing this and think it's the best way to get real clean yeast. I'm washing some wlp500 but it was used in an 8% beer so idk how good it will be so I made a larger starter and got some in a jar just in case.

Pillsburyjoboy said:

What is best way to activate this as a starter?

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What I do is make a quart of 1.030 wort and add about 100 ml of that yeast. If you have a stirplate, put it on that. If not, just swirl it periodically for 3 days.

I then pitch that full starter.

With old yeast, you might let it settle and decant most of the beer on top and add another quart of wort.

Did that make any sense?

I was letting them settle in the fridge, then bring out on brewday to come up to room temp. Then decant as much of the liquid as possible before pitching.

I made a cup of wort with table sugar and a bit of the slurry in the boil for yeast nutrient. Once cooled I added slurry to see what happens. Depending on the results I am to pitch the next batch on the whole cake of slurry. Is this a bad idea? I expect it to go fine. I have pitched on cakes like this in the past. I feel that based on feedback washing the slurry is not necessary. My test should tell me how viable the yeast in the slurry is. Thoughts?

Pillsburyjoboy said:

I made a cup of wort with table sugar and a bit of the slurry in the boil for yeast nutrient. Once cooled I added slurry to see what happens. Depending on the results I am to pitch the next batch on the whole cake of slurry. Is this a bad idea? I expect it to go fine. I have pitched on cakes like this in the past. I feel that based on feedback washing the slurry is not necessary. My test should tell me how viable the yeast in the slurry is. Thoughts?

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You mean you'll make your wort and add it (cooled) on the yeast slurry that you're making? Yes. That should work.

Yes. In my test I added some slurry to the boil to kill the yeast and provide some nutrient.
I will cool my wort and add to the remaining cake.

olotti said:

I just started doing this and think it's the best way to get real clean yeast. I'm washing some wlp500 but it was used in an 8% beer so idk how good it will be so I made a larger starter and got some in a jar just in case.

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as long as you make a starter, youll get new healthy yeast. If you just picthed the harvested slurry you have no idea wheat your gonna get

Pillsburyjoboy said:

I made a cup of wort with table sugar and a bit of the slurry in the boil for yeast nutrient. Once cooled I added slurry to see what happens. Depending on the results I am to pitch the next batch on the whole cake of slurry. Is this a bad idea? I expect it to go fine. I have pitched on cakes like this in the past. I feel that based on feedback washing the slurry is not necessary. My test should tell me how viable the yeast in the slurry is. Thoughts?

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Youll be fine. Anytime Im in doubt o how healthy my yeast is I make a starter. AT the end, the yeast cake at the bottom will have fresh healthy yeast. Ive done this with yeast thats been in my fridge for +1 years and its worked out alright. Just took longer to get rolling