Successfully Wrangled, Now What?

After many, many tries I got the Pacman. Don't know what the issue was, but guessing freshness. Anywho, got starters from Yellow Snow, but what now? I pitched 1/2gal great starter that didn't seem to take off so pitched another 1/2gal starter, but brew had great krausen (I blame bucket seal). I didn't know until I got inside the bucket and had next 1/2gal ready. BTW, JZ/mrmalty said 2.3L starter needed. I then pitched the next bit of starter (from same) into two more 1/2gal starters. What do I do now? I've got 10gal brew worth of starters, but don't know what to do after that? What do folks do with wrangled yeast to preserve it long term?

Store it in mason jars in the fridge. You can keep it for months this way.

Thanks.

So, is it best to let the yeast settle, pour off most of the beer and keep a concentrated layer of yeast/trub in the mason jars? I have two gallon growlers with about 3/8-1/2" of sediment at the bottom.

For the best chance at long term storage, I would wash these large starters (search yeast washing). Its basically what you said about pouring the beer off, but you dilute it a couple times with sterilized water so that it can stay fresh longer.

Once you wash the yeast, I would pour into multiple mason jars (how many brews are you going to be using this for in the next 6 months or so?), save them in the fridge, then create a starter with each a few days before each brewday. Once you start to run low on "supply", re-up by making a nice large starter again.

By dividing the first batch into as many seperate "children" as possible, you do not have as many generation mutations and the strain will keep its qualities relatively the same.

BTW, doesnt Wyeast sell Pacman yeast? I swear I remember using it on one of my first batches (earlier this year).

NiteOwlBrewing said:

Thanks.

So, is it best to let the yeast settle, pour off most of the beer and keep a concentrated layer of yeast/trub in the mason jars? I have two gallon growlers with about 3/8-1/2" of sediment at the bottom.

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Boil the mason jars/lids/rings in some water with the jars full for 10-15 mins, then cap them and let them cool. This gives you the sanitized water & jars you need. Cool and decant your starter and pour the yeast in there, then re-cap and refrigerate. The oxygen deprived water & cold temps will help put the yeast to sleep. No need to wash as the yeast isn't really dirty, there is minimal trub created in a starter.

kpr121 said:

BTW, doesnt Wyeast sell Pacman yeast? I swear I remember using it on one of my first batches (earlier this year).

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Yup, but I think it comes out in Feb. Whatever's around right now that I can find is from sources I have no dealings with, so I don't know what kind of viability to expect. I like building one up from a 22 of Yellow Snow as its only $5 and I get beer too.

NiteOwlBrewing said:

Yup, but I think it comes out in Feb. Whatever's around right now that I can find is from sources I have no dealings with, so I don't know what kind of viability to expect. I like building one up from a 22 of Yellow Snow as its only $5 and I get beer too.

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I like that idea as well actually, I havent ever cultured a yeast from a commercial brewery. Maybe that will be my next brewing mini obsession...

Ok, now, when making a starter with these I need help. I've got multiple jars as I divided each gallon's worth of starter "cake" into 4 mason jars. If mrmalty says a 2L starter is necessary, can I decant one of these settled mini cakes into the intended amount of starter (in this case 2L)? I'm just not sure if the calculations on the site (only allowing for liquid) for 2L include some ungodly number of cells from the liquid pack. Anywho, that's what I'm doing, so I guess I'll see.

It really depends on how much yeast you have in the bottom of those jars & how old it is. I'd probably go with a smaller starter (maybe 1L) first, chill/decant then grow up the 2L starter.