saving part of wyeast smackpack

[emily47]

Hi Everybody,

I'm going to be doing a 1 gallon test batch of a recipe I'm working on. According to three different calculators (Mr. Malty, YeastCalc, and BeerSmith), I'm going to need to pitch at most 30 billion yeast cells, or 1/3 of the Wyeast smackpack I have. I would like to save the rest of the yeast and, if all goes well with this recipe, use a starter to bump up my cell count from the remaining 2/3 to pitch to a full 5 gal batch.

I have a bunch of white labs tubes lying around I figure I can store the rest of the yeast in the fridge til the time comes. However, my question is regarding the actual "smack" part of the smack pack:

If I break the smack pack and release the nutrients, will that affect the storage of the yeast that I am saving? I could easily just let it come to room temperature, and use yeast nutrient in my boil to compensate for the lack of "smack"ing.

If it's not going to affect anything, might as well use it, make sure my yeast are healthy before I pitch 1/3 of it, and then save the rest. But I don't want to affect the yeast in storage in any way if it would make a difference.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on storing portions of liquid yeast?

This is my first post, though not my first brew, and this forum has definitely been a wealth of knowledge helping me through my beginner problems. thanks!

 

[Quaker]

I'd pitch it all and consider it a 1 gallon starter. When that beer's done, crash cool it and rack your beer off the cake.

Otherwise, you could make an extra liter of wort, pitch your remaining 2/3 in there. Let it ferment a few days, then. Chill and store a week or two. Decant off the starter beer before pitching.

I think you'd have a hard time controlling the flow out of the packet to judge only 1/3 unless you pour to another container first.

 

[bratrules]

Why not just make a starter with the unused portion of yeast. Then just store the starter in your fridge till your ready use it again. You can even split that starter and make more with it!! That's what I would do.

 

[Dan]

Nice first post! And welcome! Unfortunately I can't help you with your question but it does sound like you have a good plan laid out. Half the fun in homebrewing is experimenting (especially if you have put some thought behind it first).

As far as storing liquid yeast, people do it all the time so I don't see a problem with that. When you get ready to use the stored yeast make a simple starter.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I'd go ahead and smack it. It'll confirm that your yeast is viable before opening the pouch and shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the portion you are saving off for later.

And personally, I wouldn't make a starter out of the saved portion until you are ready to use it unless you are going to use it within a couple of weeks. If it ends up being a month or three before you get around to that 5 gallon batch, you'll need to make another starter then regardless of whether you make one now. Save yourself the hassle and just do it when the time comes.

 

[emily47]

Thanks dan and LLbean! That was exactly what I was looking for - I don't know when I'll get around to the 5 gal, so I'd rather not have to go through the process of washing yeast, etc.

Brew day today, thanks for all the help!