How long can I keep a 1056 yeast starter?

[Brewtus_Maximus]

After sitting on the stir plate for 36 hrs I capped the flask for my yeast starter (Wyeast 1056) and put it in the fridge. It's been sitting there now for about 1.5 weeks now. If I decant and warm the yeast to room temp for a few hours, will it still be good to brew with? If so, how long do you think I could hold a yeast starter like this?

I'm sure that I could also decant and use some of the yeast to make another starter, which is what I might end up doing. I know that a few yeast cells will have died over 1.5 weeks. But what I am more worried about is the vigor of the yeasties. If I took part of the yeast slurry and made another starter I know the vigor would be much better. Thoughts?

 

[LLBeanJ]

You should be able to go a couple of weeks and be okay. I've gone as far as 3 before with no issues.

 

[balauru_327]

I have done a starter from a beer ( refermented in bottle and with no heat treatment) that had over 1 year old. It is prety the same with a starter, so with other words, i say that if you have proper conditions ( cold, no infection, hops added to the starter) you can keep it for a long time.

 

[m00ps]

I agree with the others, maybe up to a month would be fine, longer may just make them lazier but still alive. Longest I've done is 2 weeks at room temp due to a bump in the brewing schedule. I didn't want to go through the trouble of harvesting and remaking it and I figured it would be less active if I fridged it.

A starter is a tiny batch of low-gravity beer. Theoretically, I'd guess you can keep it on its yeast cake at room temps as long as you would a batch of beer.

If you're worried about how fast the yeast will take off when you pitch weeks later, I'd decant the thing a day before brewing and pour in more fresh DME-wort. It'll take right back off and be at high krausen for pitching

 

[chato]

If your starter is large enough (say ~ 2L) here's one thing you could do - swirl the starter to get the yeast back into suspension, then divide it all into two sanitized quart mason jars, filling them completely. Put those back in the fridge for a couple days. Take one mason jar out and make a sufficiently sized starter for your upcoming batch. Decant the beer off the yeast before pitching into the starter. Keep the other mason jar for a future batch.

 

[Brewtus_Maximus]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I used said starter yesterday to brew a Citra session IPA. It had been sitting in the fridge for about 2 weeks and 3 days prior to use. I took it out when I started mashing and let it sit out for the 4-5 hrs it took me to brew. I did the normal decant/swirl/pitch maneuver, and this morning (about 12 hrs later) there is already krausen forming and the airlock is bubbling off. I'd say it's good to go! The starter was around 1.2 L in total using 1.040 gravity wort. (in case anyone was wondering).


I did see someone mention adding hops to a starter.. Sounds interesting, I might have to look that up!


Stoked for my Citra IPA.. Smells bombtastic! :rockin: Used mostly Citra, but also Simcoe and Amarillo. Gonna dry hop with 2-3 oz of Citra pellets. Can't wait!