Harvesting/Storing House Blends

[burninator]

Anybody harvesting and storing their own house mixed cultures? I've done this with single strains and with sacc blends, but I wonder if anyone here is putting away mixed cultures of sacc/brett/bacteria for future use.

I have a Berliner weisse fermenting right now, with house-grown lacto and US-05. The lacto was grown at just above room temperature, and it took my starter down to lip-puckering tartness so quickly, I think I'd like to save this for future batches.

Likewise, I'm working on a house saison blend of different organisms, and if all goes well, I'd like to keep some on hand for frequent use. Any tips?

 

[Wes440]

I like using bombers with a drilled stop and airlock for my funky/sour cultures, also 1 gallon glass jugs are good. Every 3-4 months pour off and add a bit of fresh wort to feed the culture. Either that or use sanitized glass jars and refrigerate multiple samples.

 

[burninator]

That's basically the direction I've been going with it. For building up a culture, I'll use a bottle with an airlock. For cultures harvested from finished brews, it's a mason jar in the refrigerator. Just not sure if, with a mixed culture, I should be more careful about the temps at which I store it, given the different temperaments of the various organisms involved.

 

[Wes440]

I know that it's recommended that mixed cultures be refridgerated to maintain some balance between organisms. Read here:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/03/maintaining-brett-and-lacto-cultures.html?m=1

 

[gometz]

I've just been doing new generations on the mixed culture slurry. Will hopefully start generation 4 in the next 2 to 3 weeks.