I have so many jars of yeast in my fridge...

[z-bob]

I think I need to throw them all out. Maybe keep the latest jar of Voss kviek, but maybe not now that it's available as dried yeast and mine is about 5 or 6 generations old.

I have lots of packets of dried yeast I should use, and I can start over saving jars of yeast slurry. Thanksgiving is coming up and I could use the refrigerator space for things like turkey

 

[RCope]

Do a suicide starter with each jar...that's my plan and I'm sticking to it

 

[z-bob]

I like that idea, even tho' I don't know what it means. What's a suicide starter?

 

[AzOr]

I think I need to throw them all out. Maybe keep the latest jar of Voss kviek, but maybe not now that it's available as dried yeast and mine is about 5 or 6 generations old.

I have lots of packets of dried yeast I should use, and I can start over saving jars of yeast slurry. Thanksgiving is coming up and I could use the refrigerator space for things like turkey

Just last night I dumped a bunch of jars of yeast too. It was a little sad but I needed the space as well.
Sometimes I just don’t have the patience for starters and will opt for pitching wort into a fresh yeast cake or buying an Imperial strain.

 

[passedpawn]

I like that idea, even tho' I don't know what it means. What's a suicide starter?

When I was a kid (70’s!) a suicide was when you got a squirt of every flavor of soda from the fountain. Orange, grape, cola, 7up, etc. Suicide!

 

[AzOr]

When I was a kid (70’s!) a suicide was when you got a squirt of every flavor of soda from the fountain. Orange, grape, cola, 7up, etc. Suicide!

I remember that. Of course it was delicious because it was almost 100% sugar.

 

[RCope]

I like that idea, even tho' I don't know what it means. What's a suicide starter?

I overbuild my starters and keep a wide selection of yeasts in mason jars. If I just make a regular starter without overbuilding then that yeast selection is "dead". Therefore, "suicide starter". Maybe murder starter would be a better term. I just made it up on the fly...

 

[Stonehenge360]

Mix them all together. Maybe you will end up with something delicious

 

[Golddiggie]

You could also look into freezing parts of each jar. Or enough so that you can make starters from samples and brew without buying. I froze some yeast back in 2012 and used it in a batch this year. Look up what you need to do and just make it happen.

I actually have the yeast from that batch in a jar in the fridge right now. I've been trying to get time set aside to freeze more. I'm thinking I'll pull off some from the jar and make a starter. Then do the routine to freeze what comes out. I do still have some tubes of the yeast from 2012, so I don't NEED any more. I'd just like to have more from this batch.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I just emptied my saved jars. I had some older slurry, all 3 had some funk when I started them back up. 3864 is the only one I cared about. I saw they had it available as a Private Selection. I ordered 3 smacks, dumped all of them last week. Many had many miles on them anyway.

 

[day_trippr]

I overbuild my starters and keep a wide selection of yeasts in mason jars. If I just make a regular starter without overbuilding then that yeast selection is "dead". Therefore, "suicide starter". Maybe murder starter would be a better term. I just made it up on the fly...

Stick with the "suicide starter", I think it's a rather canny moniker

Cheers!

 

[ba-brewer]

If they are readily available yeasts, just purge. Seasonal or hard to get yeast save a small amount in smaller jar if you really need space. If you have a tendency to collect things your jars will refill.

Dry yeast goes bad or loses vitally over time so it is good to rotate those if you keep some on hand for emergencies.

I started to slant yeast to save space but it did not happen. It is work to build up from a slant so I save slurry and repitch a few time. Now I have jars of slurry and slants to keep active and manage.

Just did a purge of jars last week.

 

[day_trippr]

I had to go through the same purge this fall when my pipeline suddenly stopped due to a dying keezer. I had been running 6 strains for a couple of years via overbuilt starters, but realizing I wasn't going to be brewing for quite awhile I finally called it.

Now that "K3" is up, I'm running 1318 and 1056 again to get started...

Cheers!

 

[Tom R]

Or freeze them in 15mL centrifuge tubes. Should last for years, I've read.
Here's 38 tubes in about a 40 square inch footprint.
I step them up two or three times, and then pitch.
I go through a lot of DME. I should can starter wort and save a few bucks.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

As you say, Thanksgiving is coming. Make a batch of very yeasty dinner rolls. I only have a few jars and I am thinking of that for fun.

 

[grampamark]

I have nothing to contribute, other than the thread title immediately made me think of Ron Burgundy...

 

[deuc224]

Or freeze them in 15mL centrifuge tubes. Should last for years, I've read.
Here's 38 tubes in about a 40 square inch footprint.
I step them up two or three times, and then pitch.
I go through a lot of DME. I should can starter wort and save a few bucks.View attachment 707403

I do this but in 50ml tubes with 25ml slurry. Gets me right at about 100million cells so its just about a pack of yeast, so only 1 step up for me to make beer.

 

[Tom R]

I think I'll probably do the same after I use up my remaining 15mL tubes.

 

[bobeer]

I just purged some old yeast too. Some were labeled and some where not others had a ? next to the label, haha. I used to build from smaller stashes of yeast but with the 2 little kids and all the usual chaos at home it was easier to just pitch old slurry. I whirlpool and filter the wort before it goes into the fermenter and then I cold crash and rack carefully into the keg so my slurry is pretty clean.

If those vials work for freezing yeast then I might just go for that in the future to reduce my footprint in the fridge. I can handle a 1 step starter.

 

[z-bob]

I do this but in 50ml tubes with 25ml slurry. Gets me right at about 100million cells so its just about a pack of yeast, so only 1 step up for me to make beer.

Something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Leak-Proof-Centrifuge-Graduated-Container-sterilized/dp/B07F8RQYQ6

How do you prepare the yeast for freezing? I know it takes glycerin.

 

[Tom R]

I use this procedure for freezing yeast:
Maintaining A Healthy Yeast Bank Long Term | HomeBrewTalk.com - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Community.
Once you are set up it's a piece of cake.

Those centrifuge tubes should do fine.

 

[Immocles]

I'm tempted to give some of the yeast freezing a shot.
I also had waaaay too big of a jarred yeast collection in my brew fridge. I always just direct pitched jars of slurry harvested from the cakes. It gets overwhelming in a hurry. Ended up with two funky tasting off flavors in the last year and best I can figure is that it was from direct pitching old, laggy yeast. So I ditched about 8 jars and I've since decided that jars won't be kept longer than a month, and am moving to mostly dry yeast.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

I use this procedure for freezing yeast:
Maintaining A Healthy Yeast Bank Long Term | HomeBrewTalk.com - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Community.
Once you are set up it's a piece of cake.

Those centrifuge tubes should do fine.

The pressure cooker is really needed or there are other alternatives?

 

[Tom R]

I'm still new to this, but I think you'll need the high temp that the pressure cooker delivers in order to kill all the nasties.

I tried to find a cheap Craigslist one, but they were almost the same price to buy new. I bought a 4 qt aluminum one, I think it was $40 shipped.

According to the manual it operates at 15 PSI, 250F.

(edited to fix temp and add details)

 

[bleme]

Dry your kveik. There is a thread around here somewhere about just using the oven light. I wouldn't worry about how many generations old it is. The stuff is thousands of generations old when you get it.

 

[ba-brewer]

I'm still new to this, but I think you'll need the 285F that the pressure cooker delivers in order to kill all the nasties.

I tried to find a cheap Craigslist one, but they were almost the same price to buy new. I bought a small aluminum one, I think it was $40 shipped.

I think you need 240 or 245F plus a long enough time to kill botulism. 15psi gets you in that range for most altitudes. Botulism also needs a low or no oxygen environment.

 

[bobeer]

I'm tempted to give some of the yeast freezing a shot.
I also had waaaay too big of a jarred yeast collection in my brew fridge. I always just direct pitched jars of slurry harvested from the cakes. It gets overwhelming in a hurry. Ended up with two funky tasting off flavors in the last year and best I can figure is that it was from direct pitching old, laggy yeast. So I ditched about 8 jars and I've since decided that jars won't be kept longer than a month, and am moving to mostly dry yeast.

Exactly why I purged the fridge too. This freezing thing looks to be pretty awesome.
I had a couple weird fermentations as well, no off flavors or anything though, but I could tell the yeast was just done. If I pitch more yeast with each generation, and control the temp well, it tends to help with any off flavors.
My house ale yeasts are mostly dry yeast, nice and cheap! Us05 and s04 are my main ones but I have also started to mess with t58 (belgian) and k97 (kolsch) with pretty good results. The k97 has to really be kept at low Temps much more so than the wlp029 so I'll probably stick with the wlp there. K97 can easily get sulfury if not kept in check. I did my Xmas beer with the t58 at low Temps and got a great spicy dubbel with no spices in it at all. It flocced great too.
What dry yeasts are you switching to?

 

[Immocles]

Exactly why I purged the fridge too. This freezing thing looks to be pretty awesome.
I had a couple weird fermentations as well, no off flavors or anything though, but I could tell the yeast was just done. If I pitch more yeast with each generation, and control the temp well, it tends to help with any off flavors.
My house ale yeasts are mostly dry yeast, nice and cheap! Us05 and s04 are my main ones but I have also started to mess with t58 (belgian) and k97 (kolsch) with pretty good results. The k97 has to really be kept at low Temps much more so than the wlp029 so I'll probably stick with the wlp there. K97 can easily get sulfury if not kept in check. I did my Xmas beer with the t58 at low Temps and got a great spicy dubbel with no spices in it at all. It flocced great too.
What dry yeasts are you switching to?

Nottingham has become my go-to for ales. I bounced between that, us05, and WL001 but have settled onto notty. Its just too versatile to use over a wide range of styles. Still keep a pack or two of 05 for a recipe that I dont want to mess with, though. I've also used T58 with good luck, and look forward to using it again sometime hopefully soon. My two hang ups are that I love WY2565 and WY1007. I have a pack of k97 and am hoping that I can use that in place of the 1007, but im at a loss for the kolsch yeast. That just might have to be a liquid purchase once or twice a year. Really excited to try the K97 in an alt, though.
Also grabbed a pack of lalbrew voss (didn't have the best luck with it, it got waaaaay orangey on me, possibly amplified by a healthy cascade/cent whirlpool), lalbrew verdant IPA, S-33, and Munich classic wheat. Really curious how the last one will compare with my dunkelweizen recipe. I haven't branched out much into lager yeasts, so im sticking with 34/70 and giving S189 a shot as well.
There's a heck of a lot of dry yeasts out there, haha.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

I think you need 240 or 245F plus a long enough time to kill botulism. 15psi gets you in that range for most altitudes. Botulism also needs a low or no oxygen environment.

I will take a look to see if there's another formula for less temp and more time, even of I have to spend an hour or more, at the end is better for me as my issues are related to space so if I can avoid having another kettle laying around, that will be great

 

[ba-brewer]

I will take a look to see if there's another formula for less temp and more time, even of I have to spend an hour or more, at the end is better for me as my issues are related to space so if I can avoid having another kettle laying around, that will be great

I get you, I have more pots in the garage than in the kitchen.