yeast

[trubador]

Made a very successful yeast starter this past sunday

Given what I witnessed as the best primary fermentation I have ever seen, i will be making starters in the future. :rockin:

Question: For my next batch, If I open up a White Labs yeast container, shake, and pitch half in a starter, can I save the other half by re-tightening the cap and putting back in the fridge for use in a future starter?

For that matter, could I pitch just a third of it into a starter and get three uses from the same White Labs Yeast container? Or four uses? My starters would be the 1 liter variety with a cup of DME.

What would the shelf life in the fridge be for the 1/2 bottle of White Labs yeast that is retightened and put back in fridge?

Or am I totally off base here and this method could not be done.

 

[Monster Mash]

How many beers do you want to make with the same strain of yeast?. I normally go 2 or 3 times before changing for a different style so rather then splitting the vial I reuse the yeast after fermentation. If you split the vial you have to build up the starter more to get the correct amount of yeast for pitching.

 

[trubador]

How many beers do you want to make with the same strain of yeast?. I normally go 2 or 3 times before changing for a different style so rather then splitting the vial I reuse the yeast after fermentation. If you split the vial you have to build up the starter more to get the correct amount of yeast for pitching.

The starter I just made was from a Wyeast propagator pack which had 25 billion cells. The starter worked fantastic.

A White Labs container supposedly contains 100 billion cells, I figured by splitting it once or twice I would still have more of an initial population to throw in the starter than the Wyeast pack.

As far as how many times, that's why I also posed the question of storage time. I would likely do this by planning out two or three batches that use the same yeast strain and go from there. I don't want to pitch onto the yeast cake in the primary, I would rather be able to go to the fridge and pick up the white labs vial and throw 1/2 or 1/3 in a new starter, if possible of course.

 

[aekdbbop]

hey, i have a 1/2 gallon growler, can i just boil in that? (can i just put that directly on my electric burner?) ive seen people do it with a flask before.. just wondering..

 

[trinitone]

hey, i have a 1/2 gallon growler, can i just boil in that? (can i just put that directly on my electric burner?) ive seen people do it with a flask before.. just wondering..

I'm guessing that, unless your growler happens to be made of borosilicate glass, the answer is no.

 

[Porter fan]

Made a very successful yeast starter this past sunday

Given what I witnessed as the best primary fermentation I have ever seen, i will be making starters in the future. :rockin:

Question: For my next batch, If I open up a White Labs yeast container, shake, and pitch half in a starter, can I save the other half by re-tightening the cap and putting back in the fridge for use in a future starter?

For that matter, could I pitch just a third of it into a starter and get three uses from the same White Labs Yeast container? Or four uses? My starters would be the 1 liter variety with a cup of DME.

What would the shelf life in the fridge be for the 1/2 bottle of White Labs yeast that is retightened and put back in fridge?

Or am I totally off base here and this method could not be done.

Sure you can spilt your startes as many times as you like not a problem just keep an eye of sanitation flame the top of the vial close it back up and your set for another batch when your ready..

 

[Pumbaa]

hey, i have a 1/2 gallon growler, can i just boil in that? (can i just put that directly on my electric burner?) ive seen people do it with a flask before.. just wondering..

/agree with Trinitone

When you see people puting flasks or beakers right on the heating element of a stove (gas or electric) they are using a glass like Pyrex or Bomex. If you try that with a normal type glass you run a STRONG chance of the glass failing and leaving nice little sharp shards all over.

 

[aekdbbop]

ha.. thanks for the warning..