Splitting starter for multiple brews

[metanoia]

I know that there's a very similar thread on the first page of these section of the forum right now, but I didn't want to hijack it for a slightly different question.

I'm planning on picking up some WLP300 tomorrow for my hefe brew this weekend and wanted to stretch it a bit farther than one brew. I plan on making a mid-sized starter and following the same instructions from here: http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

Since I plan on making a few beers with the yeast over the next 3-6 months, I'd like to split the first starter up into 5 parts, 4 parts for storage and 1 part to build into another starter for my Saturday brewday. The plan is to start the first starter tomorrow night, cold crash Thursday night, split the starter on Friday evening and start making my brew starter with one part, and put the other 4 jars in the fridge for storage.

First of all, does this sounds like a viable plan? I plan on using 3 of the jars over the next 3-6 months, and then when I get to the last one repeat this process again using the last jar just like the original yeast vial. I figure that since the guy who wrote the tutorial says he has successfully done this 12-13 times with only splitting once, I would still have viable yeast after 48+ brews since it would only be on the 12th generation by then, just like his example.

Second, size. I'd really like to use some 4oz baby food jars for storing the extra parts of yeast, since I will be doing this with WLP001 and WLP013 in the future and the compact size of the jars in the fridge would certainly appease SWMBO. I do have an endless supply of these smaller jars as well as dozens of pint-sized mason jars, so it's not an issue of buying vessels. I assume that the yeast in 4oz of the fermented starter should be enough to get another starter going in a few months, but I figured I'd see if anyone more experienced has something to say on the topic.

Thanks guys!

 

[tally350z]

Seems like your on the right track. I would however not worry about cold crashing and decanting. I would keep the yeast in suspension inside your flask. Than pour your desired amount into the baby jars. How large are you going to go on ther primary starter? I would do 1000ml at first and divide into 5- 200ml baby jars if they can fit it.
If you are going to consistantly use the baby jars and if they are uniform size it would be best to have one that you can use as a guide on how much slurry you have. Ie, mesure out every 50 ml or even 25ml if your able too.

 

[logdrum]

I use Brulosopher's method as well, but I don't bother splitting the initial starter that many ways. I'll calculate my pitch & plan so I end up w an additional ~100b cells in ~500ml (or there abouts) & use that 100b for my next starter. This way my 100b "vial" is only as old as my last brew.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I use Brulosopher's method as well, but I don't bother splitting the initial starter that many ways. I'll calculate my pitch & plan so I end up w an additional ~100b cells in ~500ml (or there abouts) & use that 100b for my next starter. This way my 100b "vial" is only as old as my last brew.

+1. I harvest yeast for storage into preform tubes to make the next starter. (that's the tube that most liquid yeast comes packaged in) Baby food jar is bigger so it should work fine.

 

[metanoia]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's good to hear about other brewer's experiences. I wasn't thinking much when I made my starter last night and boiled only 500ml or water, so the wort I have in the starter right now is about 375ml due to boil-off. I do also have some 2oz jars, which seems closer to the White Labs vial size, so I'll probably put 2oz/60ml in 4 of those, then pitch the remaining 135ml into a bigger starter for Saturday's brew.

I was a little worried about making a starter for the first time in a couple years, and I spent the few hours after it was pitched last night constantly checking on it and shaking it up, so I was rather happy this morning to see that there was a beautiful layer of krausen when I woke up.

 

[MrSnacks]

I use Brulosopher's method as well, but I don't bother splitting the initial starter that many ways. I'll calculate my pitch & plan so I end up w an additional ~100b cells in ~500ml (or there abouts) & use that 100b for my next starter. This way my 100b "vial" is only as old as my last brew.

This.

 

[metanoia]

So you think that the age of the yeast since it's last starter is more important than the number of starters it has fermented?

I mean, $7 isn't a huge investment to see how this works out, so I'm not worried with what I'm trying to do. Last night I shook up the starter (24 hours), split it into 4 equal parts of about 90ml each, used 1 part for my Saturday brew starter, and put the other 3 into small jars that they completely filled and those are now in the fridge.

And for some reason (I don't know what I was thinking), I put all of my 1000ml wort for the next starter into the 2pt mason jar I'm using, which with the yeast addition filled it fairly close to the brim. So of course this morning I find that the krausen overflowed a bit and I lost some good looking chunks of yeast on the outside of the jar. I'm assuming it'll still be alright, there's still plenty of yeasties in there of course, but we'll see what it looks like tomorrow after cold crashing all night. :/