what to expect from frozen yeast?

[nipsy3]

I've tried the frozen yeast technique by mixing with the glycerine solution. It was more of a casual experiment and I didn't really plan on using it until I was sure it worked. When I made the starter from the thawed yeast, it didn't do very well. There was some activity, but very, very little. Not enough that I'd consider using it for anything. I'm sure it's expected that some yeast dies off during the freezing process, but I'm just wondering how much. Is only a little activity expected? Or should it look like a fresh vial once it gets going?

I used the correct solution (I'm not mentioning it, because I can't remember what it is off hand). It was a WL Abbey, 2nd gen, but it was already sitting in the fridge for a few weeks before I began the freezing process (I think that may have something to do with it). Also, I made sure to keep the vials wrapped in ice packs to avoid the thawing effect from the freezer. I've read it's better to thaw the vials in the fridge slowly rather that at room temp. I did that as well.

What success has everyone else had a freezing yeast.

 

[david_42]

You will probably have to decant the liquid and add fresh wort at least once. Remember, you don't see any "activity" while the yeast is growing and multiplying.

 

[fratermus]

When I made the starter from the thawed yeast, it didn't do very well. There was some activity, but very, very little.

Are you already comfortable with stepping up from small culture, and now branching off into freezing?

If this is your first foray into working with small cultures, you may want to try it again stepping it up in small wort amounts (10mls, 50mls etc) on a stirplate. I usually allot 7 days of step-up/stirplate time between harvesting cultures and pitching into primary. 10 days if working from suspensions because those have to be plated out first.

 

[nipsy3]

I guess that answers my question. I wasn't sure if I needed to step up.

I basically made a small starter with about a pint of wort and was hoping it would react like a fresh vial of yeast.

Can you give me a little more detail on how I should go about waking everything up?

 

[fratermus]

Can you give me a little more detail on how I should go about waking everything up?

It's a personal decision, but the maltose falcon's page has a section called "Propagating procedures for the preparation of pitching yeast" about 40% the way down the page.

One of the procedures in that is:

culture -> 10ml -> 250ml -> 1000ml --> etc
on a stirplate or with manual agitation.

I usually insert a 50ml in there
culture -> 10ml -> 50ml -> 250ml -> 1000ml
on a stirplate.

I normally don't end up with massive starters since I brew low-to-mid grav beers.