Help! - Should I use this frozen yeast?

[NeoBrew]

I recently started a yeast bank per the excellent article last spring here on HBT. I choose Wyeast 1056 as my first type to put in the bank. I believe I followed banking instructions correctly.

I started on Wednesday night to grow the yeast back up. I planned to do a two step starter to get the yeast up to the 435 B or so count per the yeast calculators. I'm making a version of Janet's Brown Ale which clocks in at around 1.069 original gravity. I can my own starter wort in 1/2 gallon mason jars, which means I get 1400 ml of wort. Conveniently two 1400 ml starter steps got me in the right ballpark. (I figured that each 15ml vial of yeast had about 26B cells to start with.

The yeast starters did not really finish as I would normally expect. It took 24 hours for the first step to even show any signs of life. It was rocking in another 24 hours. It blew off in my 2L flask quite a lot. Now it was Friday evening and I was anxious to get the second step started, but the first step was still at krausen. I wanted to move things along so I could brew this weekend. I decided to transfer to my 5L flask and just add the second 1400ML in with the first starter. My thinking was that the yeast would just continue and use of all the sugars regardless of the volume. I didn't want to cold crash and risk slowing down the growth. I decided I would brew Sunday to give it another day.

So this morning it was blowing off in the 5L flask pretty robustly. I let it go until about 1pm hoping it would slow down. It was maybe tapering off a little bit, but still at the top of the flask. I put it in the refrigerator hoping I could cold crash some of the yeast out of suspension. I left it go until about 6pm tonight but it was still quite cloudy. There was some stratification of the yeast, but even the top layer was still very cloudy.

My Brown Ale wort is stabilizing in my fermentation chamber. I've decanted the starter and put 1 qt of the Brown Ale wort into it to get the yeast acclimated and moving again. My plan, as usual, will be to oxygenate with pure O2 before bed and pitch the yeast . But I'm worried about ruining a whole batch with my frozen yeast.

Should I go for it? Or should I let the wort sit for a day and pick up a new pack of 1056 tomorrow and pitch it after work?

 

[IslandLizard]

1056 is a notoriously low flocculator, so it takes several days to get the starter (or beer) crashed.

From what I gathered, as long as you let it crash for 24 hours, 48 being preferred, or even longer, you will have enough of the lower floc cells precipitated. They are necessary to help finish your beer later, at the anticipated FG.

A single pack of 1056 would need a starter, and a crash, which would put you behind the 8-ball again.

I'd oxygenate and pitch your acclimated starter.

You should read up on Brulosophy's Vitality Starter. Your decanted 1056 yeast and the quart of Brown ale would be a perfect candidate.

For some reason I sense you do not use a stir plate...

 

[IslandLizard]

A 1.4 liter starter from 15 or 30 ml of frozen slurry is way too much. Use much smaller steps from a frozen batch. Read up on that.

It's something like 100 ml of 1.010-1.015 starter wort per 8-15ml of frozen yeast gel for 48 hours. I think you can then dump that whole bunch into a 1 liter starter @1.037 without crashing and decanting. Let it finish, crash and decant. Then proceed as if you bought a fresh pack with 100-some billion cells packaged yesterday. A stir plate is needed for maximum growth.

 

[NeoBrew]

I do use a stir plate.

I DID NOT let it crash for 24 hours! In an effort to move things along I poured off the cloudy beer and put in the new wort. I have been doing these vitality starters on my last few brews. I just save a quart from my brew and pitch it in the decanted starter while my main batch gets temp stable in my fermentation chamber. It has seemingly shaved 6 hours or so off my lag times. By the time I wake up in the morning the krausen has typically built up 1/4" or 1/2".

The starter wort I drew off tasted fine, so I'm thinking the yeast is doing it's job. I'm sure my manhandling of this starter has just got it growing slowly.

I think I'm inclined to just pitch later tonight. I had not thought before about the lower floc cells finishing up the beer, but that is a good point. Hopefully not letting the starter finish up it's work will not mess things up.

I think in future brews I'll start with my frozen yeast a whole week ahead of time. I'll also start with a lower gravity 250ml starter as a first step to let the yeast wake up.

 

[schematix]

If you're gonna use 1056 just buy a smack pack.

Save the banking for hard to get strains.

 

[NeoBrew]

If you're gonna use 1056 just buy a smack pack.

Save the banking for hard to get strains.

This was my practice attempt at freezing yeast. I choose 1056 because I use it a lot and will have plenty of chances to figure out the techniques before I use it on some more hard to get strains.

 

[NeoBrew]

I did decide to pitch last night around 11. The Krausen was about 1/2" thick this morning. Fermentation is in full swing now, about 19 hours later.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1486433604.488257.jpg

It remains to be seen how this will turn out, but things look and smell pretty normal so far.

 

[catsnbeer]

I used to keep stocks of yeast in a freezer. But now I have moved to just keeping 4 or 5 liquid cultures in the fridge because I am lazy AF (100-200 mL each in small mason jars that are boiled).

When I make a starter I just dump the liquid culture in the starter, let it rip for a day or two depending on how man cells / how old, crash for a day, decant 75% liquid then pitch 90% of the slurry. I save the remaining 10% for my new fridge stock. Max of 5 small jars in the fridge at any time ... which keeps the wife happy!

Even lazier still (and allowing last minute brew sessions), I have been trying to keep as much trub out of the fermenter as possible so that I can harvest yeast slurry and store that - I have done up to a few months with great results. I can directly pitch then - no starter required.

The other thing that has been working out well for me is WLP007, beers are great and it flocs like a lead balloon.

Cheers!