Freezing yeast in mason jars?

[Hilbert]

I saw a couple articles out there that talks about freezing yeast but they all seem to tell you to tranfer the slurry to test tubes before you freeze.

I wash my yeast and store them in small mason jars. The problem I am having is I am running out of room in my small beer fridge. When I bought my last batch of small mason jars on the package I noticed it started that the jars are safe to freeze.

My questions are: Can I freeze my washed yeast in mason jars? Do i need to do anything before I freeze them or can I just stick the jars in the freezer? Same with after I take them out of the freezer?

Thanks

 

[King of Cascade]

you cant just put the yeast in the freezer. The mason jars might work but follow this
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/guide-making-frozen-yeast-bank-35891/

 

[HalfPint]

Yeast be cheap man. I'd just wash it and then when that either gets too old or you run out (I do b/c I don't like to re-use too much yeast) just buy some more. I know that I really only use about 4 yeasts for all of my brewing, so it's fairly easy.

 

[Scimmia]

You need some kind of cryoprotectant before you stick them in the freezer. You could use mason jars, but you'd be going through so much glycerol that it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Revvy]

I don't know that the mason jars wouldn't break in the freezer, even if you used a ton of glycerine. Shop around, you can find all manner of plastic tubes to use for a frozen yeast bank.

Edmund scientific and american science and surplus should carry some. http://scientificsonline.com/

American science and surplus even has petri dishes. http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm/subsection/4

 

[bja]

How many different kinds of yeast do you have? And how many of each?

You could go buy a mini fridge just for yeast. They're cheap.

 

[Hilbert]

i usually wash my yeast into 4 jars and when i get down to the last two I wash that batch.

I tend to save any yeast that I don't have. So depending on the style I'm brewing I have the correct yeast. For example I just brewed a stout so I bought White Labs Irish Ale and I washed that. Well now I have 4 jars of Irish Ale for my stouts, porters, etc. But I may not do another stout for a couple months. So the tend to pile up after a while.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort just because I can usually wash the yeast 3 or 4 times and that's at a minimum 12 batchs from one yeast vial. So to go buy a $6.00 vial of yeast every 12 batches doesn't seem to bad. I was more for a space saver than anything.

 

[TheGoatman]

i usually wash my yeast into 4 jars and when i get down to the last two I wash that batch.

I tend to save any yeast that I don't have. So depending on the style I'm brewing I have the correct yeast. For example I just brewed a stout so I bought White Labs Irish Ale and I washed that. Well now I have 4 jars of Irish Ale for my stouts, porters, etc. But I may not do another stout for a couple months. So the tend to pile up after a while.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort just because I can usually wash the yeast 3 or 4 times and that's at a minimum 12 batchs from one yeast vial. So to go buy a $6.00 vial of yeast every 12 batches doesn't seem to bad. I was more for a space saver than anything.

Did anyone end up using the glycerin recipe ratio to store yeast in mason jars? I'm asking because from what I'm reading, mason jars are very much freezable (following the correct procedures) and I can't see how this would be different from the vials, except you could have a pitchable amount (or at the very least, a SINGLE step starter) and they are way easier to store (no rack, stack-able, etc.). This seems like a highly under-utilized method unless there's a good reason not to.

 

[IslandLizard]

Did anyone end up using the glycerin recipe ratio to store yeast in mason jars? I'm asking because from what I'm reading, mason jars are very much freezable (following the correct procedures) and I can't see how this would be different from the vials, except you could have a pitchable amount (or at the very least, a SINGLE step starter) and they are way easier to store (no rack, stack-able, etc.). This seems like a highly under-utilized method unless there's a good reason not to.

I was thinking about that myself. I have plenty of 4 oz mason jars that would be great to freeze. When I froze quart size mason jars with soup stock, over the years only a few busted. Since the volume of 4 oz jars is so much less, plus having a slightly conical shape, they'd make great candidates.

Now the extra amount of glycerine you'd also add to the starter may not be beneficial. Anyone have thoughts on that?

 

[SanPancho]

bump. anybody freezing in masons? glycerine %?

 

[IslandLizard]

Bump.
I have a lot of 4 oz mason jars that can be used for this. Anyone?

 

[ba-brewer]

I bought some glycerine to try this but ended up going with slants.

I think you want smaller containers if you want to freeze more than a couple stains or the space required could get out of hand I think. I say this as I think in terms of keeping at least two sample to have one as a back up.

 

[IslandLizard]

I bought some glycerine to try this but ended up going with slants.

I think you want smaller containers if you want to freeze more than a couple stains or the space required could get out of hand I think. I say this as I think in terms of keeping at least two sample to have one as a back up.

After some more reading on the topic I think I understand why (small) 4 oz mason jars are still too big. Aside from a larger storage space requirement, it takes much longer to freeze than a narrow vial, and there maybe more settling because of that. I was going to fill them about half to 3/4 way, 2-3 oz.

Slants are definitely the best way to preserve the original strain characteristics.
But building up to a pitchable amount from slants takes a while (1-2 weeks), I was hoping to find a much faster method, starting with at least 40-50 billion of surviving cells after thawing out.

I was also thinking about using soda preforms for freezing. Although glass may be better.

 

[ba-brewer]

After some more reading on the topic I think I understand why (small) 4 oz mason jars are still too big. Aside from a larger storage space requirement, it takes much longer to freeze than a narrow vial, and there maybe more settling because of that. I was going to fill them about half to 3/4 way, 2-3 oz.

Slants are definitely the best way to preserve the original strain characteristics.
But building up to a pitchable amount from slants takes a while (1-2 weeks), I was hoping to find a much faster method, starting with at least 40-50 billion of surviving cells after thawing out.

I was also thinking about using soda preforms for freezing. Although glass may be better.

For me the space to provide a buffer solution to keep the frozen yeast at a constant temp was what pushed me away from the idea.

If you do the procedure outlined in the yeast slanting sticky here on HBT and use the entire slant it only takes a few steps to get enough yeast for a 5gal batch and should be done in under a week. If you assume 2 days for the first step and one day per step after that, 4 maybe 5 days plus time to crash. If you start by isolating a few colonies on a plate then that will take longer. I assume 1B cells on an entire slant.

Slants seem small but they add up quick, 4 slant tube fit into a 8oz mason jar.