Best yeast farming storage option?

[stealthfixr]

I've got a conical, which sure makes capturing yeast easy. For a few batches, I dropped the yeast into a mason jar, capped it and put it in the fridge. After a month or so, I noticed that every single one had a bulged lid and would not even open to release pressure. Worried about glass shrapnel, I threw them all away (after carefully carrying them to the garbage in tri-ply paper bags). Shame, waste.

So, I need a yeast storage container that will deal with pressure (either releasing it or safely keeping it), but I am hoping for a solution that doesn't involve a tall airlock and the space such a container/airlock would take. Optimally, I would like to keep 4-5 yeasts in "storage", waiting to make a 2-step yeast starter for brewing--house yeasts like WLP002, WLP001/1056, etc.

Any suggestions for the latest, easy, simple, and SAFE yeast storage? Mason jars with fermentation lids? I am a little wary of glass now...

 

[Advance]

Its hard to beat mason jars for yeast storage. I usually keep about 10 strains on hand in the small 4oz ball jelly jars. All of them are from overbuilding starters. Your problem with pressure build up can be solved by simply unscrewing the lid to burp the pressure periodically for the first week or so of being in the fridge. The yeast should go dormant after this time and halt the production of CO2.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

Masons are probably the best. I always leave the lid just barely loose to allow the yeast to go nappy-nap and stop producing CO2, usually takes about a week. Then I screw the lid on tight and try not to forget about them. I make sure I write the date it was harvested, the strain and how many times it has been used. The third part is for keeping track of how many times a strain can be reused before it starts to mutate/change.

 

[ba-brewer]

For easily acquired yeast I build a starter then pitch into a clean malty beer. I save that yeast in mason jars and can get 2 or 3 pitches from that directly and a couple more repitches from one or two of those beers. I now dump any jar of yeast that does not get repitched in month. That seems like a reasonable use of the cost of vail of yeast.

I went down the slant route to bank sessional yeast and ones from the whitelabs vault. I was up to 25 strains which was too many. I am in the process of working that down to a manageable number. I would not recommend this approach unless you can brew often enough to keep them valid.

 

[Calder]

Yeast will continue to develop pressure for a while after storage. After screwing on the lid, I back it off slightly, just enough that the lid is not compressed tight, Works fine for me. Alternatively you can burp the jars occasionally.

 

[N3Bruce]

For long term storage you might want to look into freezing on glycerin. Before I went on a nearly 3 year homebrewing hiatus, due to family commitments, I made a frozen yeast library of about 10 types of yeast. It requires sterile techniques, and some freezer space, In a nutshell, you mix an equal amount of the yeast with a 50/50 mixture of water and glycerin, by volume, into vials which are then frozen. I built an insulated box out of thin foam insulation and duct tape around a test tube rack to store the vials. I recently revived some yeast that had been in frozen storage for 2 1/2 years. I believe there is an article on HBT on how to do it.

 

[shetc]

Slants -- They last a long time in the fridge. Use the last slant of a given strain to make more slants. I just made these slants from a package of Imperial Urkel, before pitching.