GF yeast starter advice

[Legume]

I want to try yeast varieties that are not available in dry gluten free form... So its time I learned to make a GF yeast starter so I can buy liquid yeast and repeatedly culture starters untill I have an effectivly GF starter to pitch.

Is anyone doing this?
I am thinking of using brown rice syrup(lundberg) and yeast nutrient to make a 1.040 starter

I ordered some Wyeast 3711 french saison, and intend to "clean it up" through a couple rounds of starters prior to pitching. As each sucessive starter is ready, I plan to cold crash it and use the yeast from the botom to inoculate the next starter (leaving the majority of the very slightly gluten contaminated wort behind).

The more strictly GF option would be to streak petri plates with the yeast, pick a single yeast colony from the plate, and use it to start a tiny starter that could be stepped up a few times to pitching volume...this is way more work, but it would be 100% GF.

your advise and experience is aprecieated,

 

[brewguyver]

You could try high maltose sorghum syrup. Whatever you use should be high maltose. Standard brown rice syrup seems like a miss.

You may want to invest in a yeast culturing kit as well. If you can streak a gluten free malt agar plate with the results of your dilutions, pick a healthy colony, then grow that up in 10 ml, 100 ml, 1 L sequential starters with gluten free medium, I'd imagine you'd be pretty close to nil. Then again, I can drink gluten containing products. You'd still have to test it to be sure that the product is safe.

 

[Legume]

Good point about making sure that the starter media is reasonably high in maltose...I dont want to be selecting for lazy (low maltase producing) yeast.

Rice syrup products vary from mostly glucose (high DE), to rather similar to barley malt extract (DE in the 40s). I will pay attention to this when I choose one...thanks.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Why not just make a small batch and give it to those that can have gluten. By the time you cycle the yeast off of two small batches you will probably be in the parts per billion range.

 

[Osedax]

I would start with White Labs because they are already 10ppm gluten after pitch. They are using new package but, I used to let the yeast settle in the tube, drain off the top fluid, and only use the thick slurry at the bottom. I would then make a starter, drain off again, and pitch. Works like a charm.

Also, try calling a local yeast lab up. They might be able to culture you yeast on a GF medium. RVA did it for me.