How long can I keep yeast in mason jars?

[DarkUncle]

Hi all,

Last time I brewed was way back in the beginning of summer. I know it's been way too long. Life gets in the way sometimes. But anyways, I had read a thread back around that time concerning storing yeast slurry from a prior brew after fermentation was complete. No yeast washing, just dumping the slurry in and throwing it into the fridge to be used another day. So I figured I'd try it. But, I cannot seem to find the thread.

So, I'm finally brewing again tomorrow and pulled out this mason jar of yeast slurry from months prior. I'm not sure if it will be any good for that long but I'm trying it. Just made the starter with it and is on the stir plate as we speak.

My question is, am I wasting my time with this? Should I just run to the store tomorrow and buy some new yeast and brew on Friday instead?

Thanks all,
Chris

 

[Yooper]

Hi all,

Last time I brewed was way back in the beginning of summer. I know it's been way too long. Life gets in the way sometimes. But anyways, I had read a thread back around that time concerning storing yeast slurry from a prior brew after fermentation was complete. No yeast washing, just dumping the slurry in and throwing it into the fridge to be used another day. So I figured I'd try it. But, I cannot seem to find the thread.

So, I'm finally brewing again tomorrow and pulled out this mason jar of yeast slurry from months prior. I'm not sure if it will be any good for that long but I'm trying it. Just made the starter with it and is on the stir plate as we speak.

My question is, am I wasting my time with this? Should I just run to the store tomorrow and buy some new yeast and brew on Friday instead?

Thanks all,
Chris

No, I do that all the time. I do have to go through and throw out the really old stuff, but the yeast from April, May, June, etc seems to be fine.

 

[DarkUncle]

Thanks for the reply Yooper. I'll give it a shot then and hope it takes off. Should I perhaps run the plate for longer than the usual 12-18 hours I normally do simply because the yeast is a bit old?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the reply Yooper. I'll give it a shot then and hope it takes off. Should I perhaps run the plate for longer than the usual 12-18 hours I normally do simply because the yeast is a bit old?

Yes, it might take longer to get going.

One thing I forgot to mention, but it seems obvious- smell the yeast when you open the mason jar. It should smell like old flat beer and maybe yeast- but not sour or fecal. If it doesn't smell "right"- get rid of it!

 

[glick]

I had a mason jar with WLP300 in it for over a year before I brewed with it again and it took right off. I'm sure a lot has to do with sanitation and the condition of the yeast when you originally stored them.

 

[DarkUncle]

No, it smelled good. In fact, I nearly took a swig of the beer on top. Had to fight back the impulse.

 

[estricklin]

I've kept ale yeast around for a while but I've been burnt too many times from trying to use lager yeast that's been around for more than a month.

My rule of thumb is, if it's been more than a couple weeks I make a 1 gallon starter.

OP, you should check out this book if you get time, it deals with the question your asking in very great detail, along with a lot of other useful information about yeast. Really helped my brewing more than anything...well that and this forum of coarse.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381969/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[helibrewer]

I store my yeast in these. I just collect about 3 ml from a fresh vial of White Labs and store it in the fridge.

Saline Flush

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

If it gives you any comfort - I revived some slurry about 3 weeks ago from a batch I made in April. Just made a 1.5 L starter. A bit slow to start. But, all seems well. I will step it up again, once or twice, before pitching.

 

[Calder]

You probably have a lot of dead yeast in there. Swirl the starter up before using, let sit for 10 minutes or so , and just use the liquid with suspended yeast, and dump the sediment. That way you mostly have new live yeast.

 

[youreanimpulse]

The saison I just bottled is the best I've been able to get out of Dupont. It was the last of my jars harvested in January, so 8 months old at the time.

 

[DarkUncle]

Well good news and bad news. The mason jar was older than I thought. Was actually from March so a few months older than I originally thought. But the good news is this starter is fermenting big time! Krausen and visible bubbling. This is my most active starter ever in fact. Probably because my harvested yeast had many more cells in it ready to go than a smack pack.

So good news negates the bad news here. Now I'm wondering if this is still fermenting away when I'm ready to pitch later. Oh well, in they will go!

 

[mdbrewer1]

This is good news indeed. I have some WLP004 in the fridge from a batch back in June that I'm planning on using on Sunday. I'll make a starter, but this gives me piece of mind that my little guys are probably still viable.

 

[bobeer]

I just pitched some sa05 i washed back in April and it's fine. Ive done 2 batches now with it. The first i didnt make a starter and it took almost 3 days to get going. The 2nd batch i made a starter 2 days before brew day and it took off like a rocket. I think youll be fine.

 

[DarkUncle]

With this I didn't wash the yeast. I simply harvested the yeast cake from the bottom of that batch back in March. There was a large thread about this back in March so I decided to give it a go.

 

[mdbrewer1]

With this I didn't wash the yeast. I simply harvested the yeast cake from the bottom of that batch back in March. There was a large thread about this back in March so I decided to give it a go.

I did the same. I was planning on washing, but didn't have the extra Mason jars I needed to do the washing when I bottled. What I have now is a nice clean line of yeast in between the sediment/trub and the beer.

Any suggestions from experienced hands if I should do anything to it prior to making a starter?

 

[bobeer]

I did the same. I was planning on washing, but didn't have the extra Mason jars I needed to do the washing when I bottled. What I have now is a nice clean line of yeast in between the sediment/trub and the beer.

Any suggestions from experienced hands if I should do anything to it prior to making a starter?

You could do a mini wash and just wash it like you would with the whole batch.

If it were me I'd probably just decant and dump it in

 

[mdbrewer1]

You could do a mini wash and just wash it like you would with the whole batch.

If it were me I'd probably just decant and dump it in

Sounds like a plan. I figured in the grand scheme of things it probably wouldn't be a big deal. The yeast was previously used in a stout that used the same hops and I moved the beer to secondary for my additions, so I figure there wouldn't be much harm in throwing the whole shebang into this batch. I'll give it a go on Saturday morning.

Thanks!

 

[mdbrewer1]

We're about to find out how it goes. I pulled it from the fridge and let it warm up to room temp. then decanted it and pitched it this afternoon. Hopefully we'll be off to the races tomorrow. If this one doesn't work out, I have another jar in the fridge that I'll make a starter with.

 

[bobeer]

Cool. Id give it 3 days before you repitch. That's about how long mine took to get going when I did the same thing.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Thanks for the real world feedback. That's kind of what I was shooting for. I've started to get this patience thing down a little better, and I've got plenty of time to get this one finished by Christmas. No need to rush.

I forgot to check on it this morning. I'll ask my wife to swap out the water bottles and see if there is any bubbling yet!

 

[mdbrewer1]

We have liftoff! Well, infrequent bubbling actually, but at least I know the little guys are still alive.

It was between 30-36 hours from pitch to bubbling. I have a feeling it's really going to take off now. I try to keep the water bath in the low 60s since I know the internal temps get higher and I don't yet have a way to measure in there.

I'll report back as things progress.

 

[mdbrewer1]

It is bubbling like mad now. Long bursts every couple seconds. Looks like the yeast were none the worse for wear after 4 1/2 months of sitting around.

 

[mdbrewer1]

The action is even more furious this morning. I've never had one bubble the airlock like this before.

 

[m00ps]

I did the same. I was planning on washing, but didn't have the extra Mason jars I needed to do the washing when I bottled. What I have now is a nice clean line of yeast in between the sediment/trub and the beer.

Any suggestions from experienced hands if I should do anything to it prior to making a starter?

Next time, I'd suggest harvesting yeast FROM THE STARTER instead of the trubby yeast cake. It definitely results in better quality yeast for the next brew. You don't want to harvest tired yeast that's fermented a high gravity beer or one that's been highly hopped. Plus you get all the dead yeast and trub with it at the bottom. Just make a slightly bigger starter (I usually aim for 1200ml and use the extra 200ml to save) and keep the extra bit. That way you have healthy yeast that haven't been exposed to alpha acids or stressed.

 

[KeninMN]

Next time, I'd suggest harvesting yeast FROM THE STARTER instead of the trubby yeast cake. It definitely results in better quality yeast for the next brew. You don't want to harvest tired yeast that's fermented a high gravity beer or one that's been highly hopped. Plus you get all the dead yeast and trub with it at the bottom. Just make a slightly bigger starter (I usually aim for 1200ml and use the extra 200ml to save) and keep the extra bit. That way you have healthy yeast that haven't been exposed to alpha acids or stressed.

That's standard operating procedure for me (and I do a 1600 ml starter, saving 400 ml for my next batch) although I harvested 500 ml of unwashed yeast cake from a mildly-hopped wheat beer I just brewed using Wyeast 1056. The yeast looked so clean and creamy white that I just couldn't bear the thought of dumping it all down the drain...

 

[mdbrewer1]

Next time, I'd suggest harvesting yeast FROM THE STARTER instead of the trubby yeast cake. It definitely results in better quality yeast for the next brew. You don't want to harvest tired yeast that's fermented a high gravity beer or one that's been highly hopped. Plus you get all the dead yeast and trub with it at the bottom. Just make a slightly bigger starter (I usually aim for 1200ml and use the extra 200ml to save) and keep the extra bit. That way you have healthy yeast that haven't been exposed to alpha acids or stressed.

I'll try doing that for my Kolsch. It will be my first time using that strain, so it will be a good time to do it.

This yeast was from my 3rd batch ever, so I was just learning. It was from a stout that started at 1.054 and had 2 oz of hops. 1 oz of those hops matched the hops for this stout, so hopefully there aren't any deleterious effects. I have one more jar of the original harvest, so if this batch turns out I might use that one for my next brew and then start over with a new vial after that.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Read this:

http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12/refrigeration-effects-on-yeast-viability.html

Really good write up on a study done on yeast viability.

 

[Calder]

Read this:

http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12/refrigeration-effects-on-yeast-viability.html

Really good write up on a study done on yeast viability.

Thank you. I have been saying for years that Mr. Malty's viability numbers for slurry should be ignored, and if slurry is used within a couple of months, one should just use today's date as the harvest date. I have generally had negative responses to that idea.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Thank you. I have been saying for years that Mr. Malty's viability numbers for slurry should be ignored, and if slurry is used within a couple of months, one should just use today's date as the harvest date. I have generally had negative responses to that idea.

I've learned that just because a majority (or even a very vocal minority) believe and practice something on this site, doesn't mean it's right. Take the CO2 "blanket" for example. Total crap.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I brewed beer for over nine months from a single bottle of ECY-10 yeast that I bought at the beginning of the year in 2013. Depending on your brewing schedule, if you don't always brew often enough you might want to make a step starter, but that depends on several things. What shape the yeast was in when you stored it and the temperature its been stored at.

I make my starters on the Monday before a Saturday's brewday and if the starter shows lackluster performance I'll make another starter from the original to build up the cell count. Most times the starters krausen up nice and thick within twelve hours, these I know will take of right away with very little lag time and be strong enough to finish the fermentation.

 

[m00ps]

I've learned that just because a majority (or even a very vocal minority) believe and practice something on this site, doesn't mean it's right. Take the CO2 "blanket" for example. Total crap.

Yeah. It took years for belief that you need to secondary to finally die out (mostly)

 

[broadbill]

That's standard operating procedure for me (and I do a 1600 ml starter, saving 400 ml for my next batch) although I harvested 500 ml of unwashed yeast cake from a mildly-hopped wheat beer I just brewed using Wyeast 1056. The yeast looked so clean and creamy white that I just couldn't bear the thought of dumping it all down the drain...

+2, this is what I do as well. I hated having to deal with the yeast cake after finishing up the bottling/kegging work.

Plus, that whole washing thing is a mess and the pain, IMO. Also, at one point I thought I read that is is better to store yeast under beer than under water, but I can't find much in the way of evidence to back that up. You can argue that beer's bacteriostatic qualities would be an advantage over water, however.

 

[Calder]

+2, this is what I do as well. I hated having to deal with the yeast cake after finishing up the bottling/kegging work.

Plus, that whole washing thing is a mess and the pain, IMO. Also, at one point I thought I read that is is better to store yeast under beer than under water, but I can't find much in the way of evidence to back that up. You can argue that beer's bacteriostatic qualities would be an advantage over water, however.

I save some of my starter for long-term storage. I've found it saves well for at least 2 years in the fridge. Some has been saved under the starter beer, and others have had the beer replaced with distilled water. I haven't noticed a difference.

For short-term brewing, I pour the cake/slurry into pint mason jars. If I brew within a month (sometimes I'll go 2 months), I have no problem straight pitching one of the pint jars of yeast. Just drain the liquid and pitch. No washing, no starter, real easy.

When I collect the slurry. First I rack the beer to the bottling bucket. Then before bottling, I swirl up the cake (no added water), and pour into sanitized mason jars. I've just sanitized 50 bottles so that is not a problem. Stproe in fridge with lid very slightly cracked to prevent pressure build up.

I've lived the starter each brew phase, and find this much easier and can't tell the difference in the final product.

I also ignore all the suedo-rules of 'lighter to darker', 'less hoppy to more hoppy', and 'lower OG to higher OG'. Doesn't make any difference as far as I can tell.

 

[m00ps]

I also ignore all the suedo-rules of 'lighter to darker', 'less hoppy to more hoppy', and 'lower OG to higher OG'. Doesn't make any difference as far as I can tell.

Yeah I have yeasts going on their 6th generation and I havent noticed any difference in character. Some strains do seem to get better performance though.

Although I do wonder if fermenting a 1.040 starter with no hops counts as a "generation" in terms of how much the yeast would change