motorneuron
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone--
I know that the best way to store yeast is frozen, in slants. But though I hope to go in that direction eventually, I don't have the equipment to do that right now. And I will have a "pipeline" issue--i.e., I'm making one beer with saison yeast, but then must make another beer before the carboy is free again, so I will have to store the saison yeast in the interim (probably two weeks, but could be two months). Thus, I'm wondering about people's experience with the following crude storage method:
*rack beer from carboy for bottling
*sanitize a large plastic beverage container (e.g. orange juice container, 2L soda bottle)
*dump the yeast cake from the bottom of the carboy into the sanitized container
*store container in fridge for as little as two weeks or as long as a few months
Now, again, I know this isn't the BEST way to do this. But has anyone done something similar, and if so, what results? Before reusing such yeast, I would definitely make a starter using some smaller quantity, so it's not like I'd be pitching directly from my large vat.
Obviously the viability of the yeast is an issue, but my thinking was that if it's basically just yeast (relatively little alcohol), the yeast will just hang out dormant for a while, rather than go into autolysis.
I'm primarily interested in empirical reports rather than speculation. I myself have done this before, but only for a shorter time period (about ten days). It worked fine.
Thanks!
I know that the best way to store yeast is frozen, in slants. But though I hope to go in that direction eventually, I don't have the equipment to do that right now. And I will have a "pipeline" issue--i.e., I'm making one beer with saison yeast, but then must make another beer before the carboy is free again, so I will have to store the saison yeast in the interim (probably two weeks, but could be two months). Thus, I'm wondering about people's experience with the following crude storage method:
*rack beer from carboy for bottling
*sanitize a large plastic beverage container (e.g. orange juice container, 2L soda bottle)
*dump the yeast cake from the bottom of the carboy into the sanitized container
*store container in fridge for as little as two weeks or as long as a few months
Now, again, I know this isn't the BEST way to do this. But has anyone done something similar, and if so, what results? Before reusing such yeast, I would definitely make a starter using some smaller quantity, so it's not like I'd be pitching directly from my large vat.
Obviously the viability of the yeast is an issue, but my thinking was that if it's basically just yeast (relatively little alcohol), the yeast will just hang out dormant for a while, rather than go into autolysis.
I'm primarily interested in empirical reports rather than speculation. I myself have done this before, but only for a shorter time period (about ten days). It worked fine.
Thanks!
