Best way to anaerobically store and maintain a lacto culture?

[TAK]

I've done one sour wort beer, which turned out great. I used Omega's lacto blend. I attribute how well it turned out to my over the top method of CO2 scrubbing.

I sour-worted in a keg. I bubbled CO2 through the inoculated wort for probably 10 minutes, purging through the blowoff set up.

I'll be doing the same thing again, and I'd really like to keep the first pour from the sour-worting keg as a culture for future projects. My concern, though, is not being able to equally purge whatever vessel I'd keep the lacto culture in.

I can't really picture any way to keep the culture and purge it as well as I can purge in a keg. My line of thinking is if it's hyper-important to make a sour-worting environment anaerobic, it should be equally important to have an anaerobic environment when storing that lacto culture.

Any experience or advice to share on storing and maintaining lacto cultures?

 

[poptarts]

what about using a mason jar with food saver attachment to purge?

 

[burninator]

Or just hold onto a bottle until you're ready to brew again.

But yeah I keep mine in a mason jar.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I feel like you're overthinking this. Pure lacto does not require a super anaerobic environment, it's just helpful in keeping other bugs out. Ph and ABV also do that for you, a bit better really. If the ph is below 4 you should be fine storing it in any closed vessel without obsessively purging.

 

[stpug]

Excluding contaminating this culture with some other microbe, it should not matter whether or not this lacto culture is stored anaerobically or aerobically. What matters is how you use on your next batch. With that said, if you are looking at full sugar wort (i.e. not fermented and still at OG) then keeping oxygen out will help ensure that it does not ferment to some extent in a storage container (if that matters).

As for storing it this time, purge your mason jar with co2 and fill with the first pull off the keg to about 1/2" from the top. Then, with the lid of the jar just cracked, purge again for several seconds and slap that lid down and tighten the right fully. Then it's just a matter of checking on it a couple times a day to ensure no further fermentation is taking place. If you find the lid is full of pressure then slowly loosen the ring until you hear the hiss of co2 escape, and tighten it back down. After about a week you really should ever find it to be much more than firm - which is fine.

Hope this all makes sense.

 

[foltster]

One option that I don't use but I have heard recommended is to pour carbonated water in which should release some co2.