Not your normal dry yeast starter thread....Ideas for starting/splitting up dry yeast

[rtstrider]

Hey all I've been toying with the idea of tossing a non rehydrated pack of dry yeast into a 1.040 og 2 liter starter on a stir plate. I'd like to let that ferment out, split the starter up into 4 pint jars, then build up the pint jar slurry in a 2 liter starter. Essentially splitting the pack up so I get 4 uses out of it. I'm mainly looking at doing this with w34/70. It's a tad pricey for dry yeast and I figure what the heck? It's worth a shot. Yeah I know I know...Dry yeast would use up all of it's reserves and such...But here's the thing I was looking at. If I did this with a 1 liter starter I would not get much, if any, growth. However, it seems a 2 liter starter, then splitting up into smaller slurries to allow for growth/propagation might just be what the Dr ordered. I'll be doing this in the next couple of weeks. Has anyone tried this previously? If so what was your experience?

 

[brewpharm Hill]

Ive made starters with dry yeast in the past with no issues - yeast is yeast. The benefit of dry yeast is that it has enough sterol reserves where it doesnt require oxygenation (although doesnt hurt to still oxygenate your wort). When using a yeast starter from dry yeast, make sure you oxygenate wort properly and use yeast nutrient since it is no longer dry yeast and has used up those reserves. It is more or less like repitching yeast from a previous fermentation that used dry yeast.

I dont see any issues! As long as you properly sterilize all your jars and minimize infection risk you're golden.

 

[Dland]

Another way to more uses out of a pack of dry yeast is to use yeast cake from previous batches. Right now I'm on 10 gallon batch #5 from direct pitched S-189 (two packs for initial pitch), works just as well with 34/70. No starter, jars, contamination risk or extra work.

I also oxygenate wort after initial pitch.

 

[rtstrider]

Another way to more uses out of a pack of dry yeast is to use yeast cake from previous batches. Right now I'm on 10 gallon batch #5 from direct pitched S-189 (two packs for initial pitch), works just as well with 34/70. No starter, jars, contamination risk or extra work.

I also oxygenate wort after initial pitch.

I've tried that in the past and have had nothing but issues with repitches. Not saying that doesn't work because it absolutely does! However I haven't had much luck with it on the homebrew level. It's more user error than yeast error lol Also I wanted a way to split this up so I didn't have to do back to back to back lagers and such. I have a large fridge dedicated to hard/soft drinks and will have room to store in there so storage space is not an issue. Figured it would be a fun experiment (didn't want to steal the coined Brulosophy term here lol) if nothing else

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Have you seen the article that Lallemand has at their site "Propagation from Diamond dry yeast" (link to PDF)?

 

[Dland]

Nothing wrong w expspearminting. I run back to back lagers all winter when cellar is cold. Have temp control, but no reason to make it work too hard. I don't re pitch though, just leave yeast cake in about a quart of beer in bottom of fermentor w/o cleaning. Works best w conical, closed transfers and continuous batch brewing.

 

[rtstrider]

Have you seen the article that Lallemand has at their site "Propagation from Diamond dry yeast" (link to PDF)?

No! That's good stuff!

 

[rtstrider]

Well I just tested this with W34/70. I built a 2 liter starter and siphoned off some slurry for freezing. Just got the glycerin, tubes, etc so this was my first freezer batch so figured what the heck? The first 2 liter starter which was just pitch the dry pack into 2 liter 1.040 wort was sluggish. After siphoning off some yeast I did one more 2 liter starter for giggles and it went ape crazy! Will be decanting and pitching that slurry into a warm ferment pilsner this weekend for giggles. Fermenting around 64F. I'll keep everyone posted!

 

[rtstrider]

I decanted and pitched the 2 liter starter into 5.5 gallons 1.050 og wort and there was activity, plus airlock bubbling once a second, and not full but what I would call a very comfortable krausen at 6 hours! Now I did add a blowoff hose before I went to bed and glad I did! It blew off overnight and has been going strong now for almost 48 hours since the initial yeast pitch. After doing this starter I'm really inclined to make 2 liter starters for dry yeast (except kveik) going forward. Have a few liquid strains to bank before trying this experiment again with another dry yeast. Next time I'll use the Lallemand Koln strain since it took almost 48 hours to show any fermentation signs when following rehydration instructions on the packet.