Reusing yeast confidence

[negativereaction]

I found that my confidence in harvesting a yeast cake after fermentation is much lower than just doubling the yeast I've just bought.

So when I buy a vial of White Labs yeast, I make a 1.5L starter, cool, decant, and pour into two vessels. One I pitch with, and one I save in the fridge.

Then when I want to use the same strain again, I'll make a big starter (maybe with two steps, if it's been in the fridge for a while), decant, split, and repeat.

Seems cleaner to me than dealing with trub, dry hopping, etc.

This method is what I use, and really seems to be the happy medium between trying to wash the junk that comes out of your primary, and doing real frozen yeast banks with pressure cooker sterilization, and all that that entails.

I've yet to have any trouble reviving my yeast starter 'forks', even after a 6 mo stint in the fridge. I use tiny mason jars, and it's always nice clean yeast that I start with. It's almost like you're simply starting with a small vial of brand new yeast.

Prior to that, I always had mason jars in the fridge full of 'washed' yeast, full of various levels of junk and I was always unsure how much was yeast and how much was trub, hop particles, etc.

 

[theck]

This method is what I use, and really seems to be the happy medium between trying to wash the junk that comes out of your primary, and doing real frozen yeast banks with pressure cooker sterilization, and all that that entails.

I've yet to have any trouble reviving my yeast starter 'forks', even after a 6 mo stint in the fridge. I use tiny mason jars, and it's always nice clean yeast that I start with. It's almost like you're simply starting with a small vial of brand new yeast.

Prior to that, I always had mason jars in the fridge full of 'washed' yeast, full of various levels of junk and I was always unsure how much was yeast and how much was trub, hop particles, etc.

You guys letting the starter sit for a good 24 hours too?

 

[negativereaction]

You guys letting the starter sit for a good 24 hours too?

How do you mean? I have my starter on a stir plate for at least 2-3 days, crash for probably 24 hours, decant the liquid, then throw it back on the stirplate at the start of brew day to get it warmed up and mixed up again. I'll then steal a portion for my mason jar for future usage just prior to pitching the rest into my wort.

 

[theck]

How do you mean? I have my starter on a stir plate for at least 2-3 days, crash for probably 24 hours, decant the liquid, then throw it back on the stirplate at the start of brew day to get it warmed up and mixed up again. I'll then steal a portion for my mason jar for future usage just prior to pitching the rest into my wort.

Got ya. I do a starter 24 about hours before I pitch. I don't have a stir plate.

 

[negativereaction]

Ah. It's best to try and get the starter going a couple days prior to pitching. 24 hours isn't really enough to get the maximum value out of whatever wort you have in your starter vessel; you'll at least know if the yeast is alive, but they won't have had the full window of time to reproduce. A couple days at least is better.

 

[curtw]

I finally broke down and bought a stir plate (Hanna). It's pretty awesome, and, according to all the calculators, I should be ending up with at least 50-75% more yeast cells then I did by occasional swirling.

 

[05m50dan]

FYI, splitting a starter, though not a bad idea, may not leave you with the right amount of yeast for your fermentation. You should always check a yeast pitch rate calculator to make sure you are pitching the right amount of yeast.

For example, a 1.050 OG 5.25gallon batch of wort should get a full 1 Liter starter on a stir plate according to mrmalty.com. If your OG is higher, you'll need more. By splitting a 1.5 Liter batch in half, your underpitching by about 25%. Plan ahead and make a bigger starter, or only decant into your mason jars the amount above what you need for the batch you are making. I would also portion out the amount while the starter is fully stirred up...once you cold crash it, you'll not be as able to portion off accurate volumes of yeast...i.e., make a 1.5 Liter starter with stir plate. When ready to pitch, pull off stir plate, use magnet to hold stir bar, and then decant 1 liter into your wort, saving in the flask (or whatever vessel you are using) the other 0.5 Liter. Then you can cold crash, decant, and save just the slurry. The 1 Liter of starter will not affect your beer significantly, especially since you'll have that much in trub after your done fermenting.