Saving Yeast

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plasma1010

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The good news is, after 2 months of brewing I havnt had any problems. Ive made mead for years, so I knew the process. I just need to get flavors down and priming to perfection.

So I got a pricey yeast for 2 new beers that Im making. My question is, when I go to bottle, can I literally just save the yeast sediment at the bottom in a jar and put it in the fridge ? I mean that appears to be what the company sent me as liquid, just a tube of yeast on a cold pack.
 
Is it dry or liquid yeast? If it's dry yeast you can save the yeast from the primary when fermentation is over, lookup threads for washing yeast, there's a lot of them. If it's liquid yeast, make a yeast starter and overbuild 100 billion cells. Pour off about a half liter of the starter and save it in the fridge and pitch the rest.
 
yes you can save your trube layer. I bought a 48 pack of Poland spring chubby bottles for 9.50 the bottles are sterile. when i bottle/transfer/keg i just go ahead and bottle up 4-6 yeast bottles at the end. i have also used beer bottles. but ball jars are by far my lest favorite format for storing banked yeast.
 
Is it dry or liquid yeast? If it's dry yeast you can save the yeast from the primary when fermentation is over, lookup threads for washing yeast, there's a lot of them. If it's liquid yeast, make a yeast starter and overbuild 100 billion cells. Pour off about a half liter of the starter and save it in the fridge and pitch the rest.

Its liquid yeast, can you explain how to build a yeast starter ? Or a good reference for what you are saying ? To be honest, while Ive been home fermenting for years, Im not familiar with the brewing terminology.
 
Its liquid yeast, can you explain how to build a yeast starter ? Or a good reference for what you are saying ? To be honest, while Ive been home fermenting for years, Im not familiar with the brewing terminology.

This yeast starter/pitch rate calculator is a good one. Also has a yeast starter over build calculation for saving fresh yeast from your starter.
http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php
 
If you don't want to go the yeast washing route, just saving the trub (unless you dry hop with loose hops, not in a bag) in a jar will work. I've done this several times with excellent results. Some things to consider; if your brew that you plan to save the yeast from doesn't turn out great, *don't* save and re-use that yeast (although it sounds like you have a good handle on the process). What I do, once I've racked off the beer into the keg, is stir up the goo on the bottom of the fermenter with the leftover beer until it's liquidy enough to pour, then just pour or scoop it into sanitized mason jars. Seal them up, mark them with the date, and refrigerate. When you brew again and want to use them, take them out of the fridge at least an hour or so before you pitch to let them warm up to room temperature. Loosen the lid so any gas can escape. Before pitching, pour off the beer that will have risen to the top, then shake it up and pitch what's left in the jar. Some may disagree, but this works for me just as well as washing yeast without the hassle. As long as it isn't too old, two 16 oz jars will be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch.

So let's say you have some slurry in your fridge that is more than a month old, and you're not quite sure it will work. Well then, just make a starter with it! Pour off the "old" beer, and add the sludge to a growler with some DME dissolved in hot water that's been chilled down under 70 degrees. Apply an airlock (or if you don't have one, cover with some sanitized foil) and watch for action. I don't have a fancy stir plate, so I just give it a good swirl several times a day. Once the krausen drops and you've got a good layer of trub on the bottom, you can either refrigerate and hold it until your next brew day, or pour off the "done" beer from the top and add some fresh DME wort to keep the party going and get more viable cells.
 
If you don't want to go the yeast washing route, just saving the trub (unless you dry hop with loose hops, not in a bag) in a jar will work.

I once did this several times in a row, brewing 4-5 beers each with the trub of the last. I didn't even bother discarding the leftover beer. I always had good fermentation, though the very last beer in this series wound up surprisingly dry and ester-y. I suspect that the yeast had become more attenuative and/or that too many cells had died and I had underpitched. The end result was a pretty decent farmouse ale- I just didn't tell anyone I hadn't done it on purpose.
 
I once did this several times in a row, brewing 4-5 beers each with the trub of the last. I didn't even bother discarding the leftover beer. I always had good fermentation, though the very last beer in this series wound up surprisingly dry and ester-y. I suspect that the yeast had become more attenuative and/or that too many cells had died and I had underpitched. The end result was a pretty decent farmouse ale- I just didn't tell anyone I hadn't done it on purpose.

My idea basically was to go this route, continuously making batches from the Trub of the previous batches.

In an old Mead recipe from the 1300's that I have, what they did was add 1/4 of a previous batch of mead to a new batch to start it. So for example if you make a gallon of mead, after about a month pour off 1/4 of the batch into a new gallon of honey-water.

The same concept would work for ale, its just a different type of sugar. I just never had experience trying it from the Trub, as it is called.

Im also collecting yeast on a fermentation log in one of the brews, if anyone is familiar with this old Norwegian style of yeast collection. They would, and still do, at small farms in Norway collect yeast in batches with logs or necklaces of wood chippings, with many notches and crevaces to collect the yeast in the batch. It is then dried out and put into new batches, along with saved Trub. It acts as a dry yeast backup.
 
That sounds interesting, and in keeping with the ancient practice of using a special 'stick' to stir the cooled wort. I remember reading about ancient brewers who passed down their "magic sticks" to their offspring, never understanding that it was the yeast clinging to it that turned their wort into beer. Just goes to show that yeast is a hardy animal that can survive just about anything. As for your 1300's recipe, it's on a par with making sourdough bread; once you've made a batch, you add some scraps to the jar and it keeps it going. Same concept works for brewing yeast. It just fractures me that what we do is pretty much the same process that has been used for centuries.
 
That sounds interesting, and in keeping with the ancient practice of using a special 'stick' to stir the cooled wort. I remember reading about ancient brewers who passed down their "magic sticks" to their offspring, never understanding that it was the yeast clinging to it that turned their wort into beer. Just goes to show that yeast is a hardy animal that can survive just about anything. As for your 1300's recipe, it's on a par with making sourdough bread; once you've made a batch, you add some scraps to the jar and it keeps it going. Same concept works for brewing yeast. It just fractures me that what we do is pretty much the same process that has been used for centuries.

Yeah I know all about that, I used to teach fermentation courses on yogurts, saurkrauts, sour dough, etc.

Though of course, beer is my new venture. I know how to make it ferment, just want it to taste good :)
 
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