Brewing happiness is...

[Yesfan]

LOL

was this playing?

LOL! No, but I'll put that on the playlist for the next Brew Day!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Braaaiiinnns…

Brewing happiness is spinning up an old yeast packet and have it step up and show a lot of growth in just a few days.

 

[DonT]

Happiness is... sitting in the backyard on a warm summer afternoon sipping a homebrew watching the smoker do it's thing on a couple racks of ribs...

Dreaming of warm weather....

 

[Broothru]

Braaaiiinnns… View attachment 838774View attachment 838773
Brewing happiness is spinning up an old yeast packet and have it step up and show a lot of growth in just a few days.

Good job!

I’ve had pretty good luck with 3-step up propagations in the past with ’MIA’ sealed factory yeasts that show up unexpectedly long after their “Best By” dates. Not so much with harvested slurry older than 2~3 months, however. Frozen samples have been revived after years on ice.

What I do now when I buy a new yeast is to propagate a 1.038 starter (1L or more). After a day or two on the stir plate after high krausen subsides, I crash, decant the supernatant into a quart jar along with all the settled yeast, but hold back about 50 ml of the settled yeast for freezing. The saved supernatant and yeast gets used for the planned fermentation and the 50 ml ‘holdback’ gets mixed 1:1 with glycerol, packed with freezer packs and stored in the freezer. Works very well and avoids discovering an unused yeast pack.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Good job!

I’ve had pretty good luck with 3-step up propagations in the past with ’MIA’ sealed factory yeasts that show up unexpectedly long after their “Best By” dates. Not so much with harvested slurry older than 2~3 months, however.

Thanks, the only thing I can really take credit for, I guess, is storing it decently and stepping it up in a way that doesn’t stress it too much. I have many old slurries in the fridge as well, dumped some about a year ago. When I see deals on yeast I make purchases with the intention to use it before it gets old. LOL then life happens. It makes sense to use the unadulterated yeast before the slurry, but I hold onto pint and half pint jars “just in case“.
Thanks for the info about freezing yeast surely that would be more sensible that what I’ve been doing.

 

[Broothru]

Thanks, the only thing I can really take credit for, I guess, is storing it decently and stepping it up in a way that doesn’t stress it too much. I have many old slurries in the fridge as well, dumped some about a year ago. When I see deals on yeast I make purchases with the intention to use it before it gets old. LOL then life happens. It makes sense to use the unadulterated yeast before the slurry, but I hold onto pint and half pint jars “just in case“.
Thanks for the info about freezing yeast surely that would be more sensible that what I’ve been doing.

The risk of freezing is the chance that the samples will thaw during a defrost cycle. Less risk if you have an ‘old school’ chest freezer. If you’re using a typical frost free kitchen refer with the freezer on top, the frozen yeast bank will be exposed to a thaw/refreeze cycle ever time the refer defrosts. The cell walls in the yeast will likely burst when this happens.

The work-around I’ve found that has worked well is to mix the yeast slurry with glycerol in a test tube or centrifuge vial. I put the samples in a small insulated lunch box with several frozen gel packs. Then I put the insulated lunch box in the freezer and surround it with additional gel packs. It keeps the yeast samples frozen for the duration of the cycle.

Obviously the process isn’t as good as storage in a -20F laboratory freezer, but it has worked for at least 5 years, which is the longest time I’ve re-propagated a frozen sample successfully.