saving yeast from starter

[baybrewer]

I almost always make a starter when using liquid yeast. At two dollars a tube it's getting kind of expensive to have to keep buying yeast, so I was thinking of saving a portion of my starter and pouring it back into the yeast tube to use for next time. This way I won't have to deal with washing the yeast, and I'll just make a starter next time I want to brew.

Besides the normal sanitation concerns any other reasons why I shouldn't be doing this?

Is there any reason why pulling off a yeast cake and washing the yeast is better than this?

Thanks for the help

 

[JediJoel]

I don't think so. Just make sure when you pour some yeast off that you still have enough to reach your pitch rate.

Do basically the same thing as washing except just use smaller jars. Boil some water and sanitize the jar then pour your yeast in the jar and top off with the cooled, boiled water. This way there is no air in the jar and a lot of the o2 in the water has been boiled out. And, of course, you don't transfer to a smaller jar once things have settled cause you don't have to get rid of all the trub.

I was at a wedding recently and they gave away small jars of jam as a favor. They were in 4oz jars. When I saw them I said "I could use this for yeast."

 

[spriolo]

How often do you brew? I wonder if your idea would work if you saved it off in the fridge for less than 2 weeks.

Start up another starter, pitch the yeast and remember to pull off a sample like you did before.... (like an endless loop?)

 

[Jenks829]

When I buy yeast I usually will make a starter with it and then split the starter into 4 separate 4oz mason jars. Then when it comes time, I'll make another starter with one of those jars. I do this when I am making big beers as I don't want to wash that yeast for fear they may be over stressed/strained. With lower O.G. beers (under 1.060) I will usually wash the yeast but over 1.060 I usually just discard it. This method lets me get a few brews of a Belgian or other high ABV batch.

 

[944play]

Is there any reason why pulling off a yeast cake and washing the yeast is better than this?

A cake has a lot more cells to work with. You get the satisfaction of reusing "waste" rather than forking your raw material.

 

[Gritsak]

At two dollars a tube it's getting kind of expensive to have to keep buying yeast,

$2 a tube! Where the hell do you get yeast. It's like $6-9 around here for WL or Wyeast.

 

[baybrewer]

How often do you brew? I wonder if your idea would work if you saved it off in the fridge for less than 2 weeks.

I brew at least once a week. I'm really hoping that it will last me more than 2 weeks in the fridge though. Right now I'm using a bunch of different types of yeast getting my pipeline back up and running after a few years off from brewing. So longer term storage is definitely the goal here, and I think it should stay viable since I almost always use a starter

 

[baybrewer]

$2 a tube! Where the hell do you get yeast. It's like $6-9 around here for WL or Wyeast.

whoops definitely a typo. I live right by morebeer so I'm getting it for 6-7 from them. If it was only $2 a tube a wouldn't even worry about saving it

 

[Pappers_]

I brew at least once a week. I'm really hoping that it will last me more than 2 weeks in the fridge though.

Just made a starter and pitched some WL Edinburgh that was harvested and washed last February, 5 months ago. Very strong fermentation going on now.

 

[spareparts]

Before I got in to yeast culturing I would split a starter in to quarters without decanting. Three quarters went in to sanitized beer bottles and stored in the fridge and the fourth would stay in the flask to be grown back up in to a starter for the current batch of beer I would be making. Then from that first batch I'd save yeast cakes, use them in a couple of subsequent batches, then start all over with one of the bottles of yeast that I put away.

I've had one of the beer bottles of WLP001 yeast in the fridge for up to 14 months and still been able to revive it and make a starter.