Simple Yeast Storage Procedure

[NeoBrew]

WoodlandBrew, somehow without understanding half of what you said...you've managed to explain yeast propagation and storage!

I never understood either as well as I do now.

Thanks!!!

 

[brewkinger]

WoodlandBrew, somehow without understanding half of what you said...you've managed to explain yeast propagation and storage!

I never understood either as well as I do now.

Thanks!!!

Agreed. ^

Since browsing Woodland's website/blog, I have propogated and stored (see what I did there??) more information with regards to yeast than I managed to gather in the prior 6 months.

Glad that I found and opted to subscribe to this thread.

 

[skepace]

So should I freeze one of my containers of harvested yeast to pitch from after 5-7 generations of the first harvest? If so, how do I freeze it?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

So should I freeze one of my containers of harvested yeast to pitch from after 5-7 generations of the first harvest? If so, how do I freeze it?

You might consider freezing an early generation in several small containers. Search for "yeast bank" and "glycerol freeze" for more details, but essentially you just need to add 10% glycerol or glycerin to the slurry and freeze it. Colder is better.

 

[skepace]

Thanks! I will put that in my list of projects after making my mash tun and finishing my stir plate.

 

[gezzanet]

Try http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/index.php?/topic/50154-Let's-Freeze-Some-Yeast

They've done some experimenting here that works ok

 

[olotti]

Why does mine look like this. All I did was add 2L of boiled and cooled h20 to the bucket, swirled and decanted into my mason jars. Now they're full of trub and hops and the yeast is separating to the top just like if I would've washed it the old fashioned way. I think I'm going to pour off the yeast in to my erlinmeyer flask add a little more boiled and cooled h2o, resanitize the jars then dump the washed yeast back in. So essentially I must've done something wrong because I just used my usual process all over again. What did I miss here cView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429210992.578926.jpg

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Why does mine look like this? ... What did I miss here?

Your yeast looks fine. While the trub does not look pretty, the yeast is fine. See here for details:
http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12/yeast-washing-exposed.html

and more here:
http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2013/01/yeast-washing-revisited.html

 

[dstar26t]

What about these?

Ziploc Twist N Lock

These are my go to harvested yeast containers. Autoclavable like mason jars but without the risk of breaking if the yeast is allowed to build up pressure. I mark the outsides at 100mL increments with a razor.

 

[Owly055]

A week ago I racked a fermenter of lager to my cold crash container, pulled a soup ladle full of the top layer of sediment, and set it aside, washed the fermenter, added the yeast sediment, and added fresh wort..... the yeast was 34/70. In a cool fermentation environment...... high 40's, it began fermenting almost immediately.

I top crop everything else, but obviously you can't do that with a lager. Doing BIAB and making no attempt to filter out hop trub or cold break material, etc.... I end up with a significant amount of trub, particularly if I use a fine crush, which I often do.

Layers are visible, so my strategy was to try to pull the upper most layer off with the ladle... which seems to have worked well for me..... a soup ladle full of material is a lot of yeast for a 2.5 gallon brew.


H.W.

 

[Yesfan]

Here's my "contribution" I wasn't expecting to have so much slurry though.

Granted this is from a dry hopped pale ale I brewed, so maybe it's the excess hop sludge from dry hoping that gave me so much. I sanitized the jars and lids in Star-san while I was racking this beer to a keg. Should I cold crash these jars, decant then combine or leave as is in the fridge? It's just US-05 so I'm not at a loss if I have to chuck it down the drain. What do you all recommend?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

It's all good yeast. What you do with it is up to you. I save enough in the fridge for the next few months of brewing, or whatever I have space for. I'll freeze smaller volumes if it's an expensive or hard to find yeast, then build these up when I want to use them.

 

[Yesfan]

It's all good yeast. What you do with it is up to you. I save enough in the fridge for the next few months of brewing, or whatever I have space for. I'll freeze smaller volumes if it's an expensive or hard to find yeast, then build these up when I want to use them.

Thanks for the reply. I may just leave as is. I worry about a possible contamination, which is the reason I asked about the decanting and combining.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Thanks for the reply. I may just leave as is. I worry about a possible contamination, which is the reason I asked about the decanting and combining.

I would be concerned with possible contamination as well. In my opinion, it doesn't matter how careful you are with sanitation, if you are doing extra steps, your asking for trouble.

 

[TastyAdventure]

What would be wrong with just bottling up the slurry I regular beer bottles and capping?
Does a little pressure hurt all that much?

 

[Yesfan]

What would be wrong with just bottling up the slurry I regular beer bottles and capping?
Does a little pressure hurt all that much?

For me, I don't have pint sized bottles and the bigger mouth of the mason jars makes pouring the slurry much easier.


One thing I've noticed is the jars I have in the fridge have not separated much. There's still a boatload of trub in the mason jars.

Should I try to separate the trub from the yeast/beer solution or just pitch the whole amount of slurry (in my case, all four jars) in my next batch?

 

[Artifishal]

For me, I don't have pint sized bottles and the bigger mouth of the mason jars makes pouring the slurry much easier.


One thing I've noticed is the jars I have in the fridge have not separated much. There's still a boatload of trub in the mason jars.

Should I try to separate the trub from the yeast/beer solution or just pitch the whole amount of slurry (in my case, all four jars) in my next batch?

Don't pitch all four jars. Use mr. Malty.com or buy the app. It will tell you how much slurry to pitch. It's usually around a half cup of slurry per 5 gallon batch.

 

[TastyAdventure]

For me, I don't have pint sized bottles and the bigger mouth of the mason jars makes pouring the slurry much easier.

I use a sanitized funnel, and if there's not enough trub bc I have stored it in only a 12 oz bottle, I can just make a starter.

Anyone know if the pressure in a capped bottle will be significantly detrimental to the yeast?

 

[Swab]

Great thread. I have 2 questions:

I generally cold crash then add gelatin to the carboy. Is it ok to collect this slurry and just re pitch to the next batch?

When referring to the amount of slurry to add, if I have 500ml mason jar that is half beer and half compacted yeast, etc... if I put that, would I be pitching 500ml of slurry or 250ml of slurry? I assume the latter, just want to make sure I'm interpreting correctly.

Thanks

 

[brewkinger]

Great thread. I have 2 questions:

I generally cold crash then add gelatin to the carboy. Is it ok to collect this slurry and just re pitch to the next batch?

When referring to the amount of slurry to add, if I have 500ml mason jar that is half beer and half compacted yeast, etc... if I put that, would I be pitching 500ml of slurry or 250ml of slurry? I assume the latter, just want to make sure I'm interpreting correctly.

Thanks

The latter is correct although the caveat is that not ALL of the 250mL would be yeast.

 

[Yesfan]

The latter is correct although the caveat is that not ALL of the 250mL would be yeast.

That's why I was asking about pitching all four jars. There's a lot of trub in each and I wondered with that amount in each jar, if the amount of yeast in a single jar would be enough.

 

[brewkinger]

That's why I was asking about pitching all four jars. There's a lot of trub in each and I wondered with that amount in each jar, if the amount of yeast in a single jar would be enough.

Pitching all of it may be overkill, or....
Maybe not enough depending on the beer.

If you look back a page or 2 in this thread, I was asking about figuring out a slurry percentage.
It seemed that depending on which calculator that I was using, the accepted number of yeast cells per milliliter of slurry varied widely.
Some were as low as 1 billion per and others were as high as 4 billion.
It all depends on how clean the washed yeast are.

 

[Yesfan]

Ok, thanks. I look back at that.

 

[brewkinger]

Do you have a picture of the jars after it all settled?
If it looks clean, like mine did from an extract batch, then I assumed 1.5billion per mL.
So if I had 250 mL of yeast in a jar, with 10-20% non yeast in there, it would be between 200-225mL of yeast for a total of 300 to 320 billion cells in there.
That is plenty of yeast for a normal batch of beer up to 1.065.

 

[Yesfan]

Do you have a picture of the jars after it all settled?..........

Here you go.

The two jars on the left are two of the four jars I collected from the dry hopped APA. The two on the right are from a strawberry blonde. You can see that the blonde leftover yeast is much cleaner than the APA. Both beers used US-05.

I think I can use the blonde, but the APA I may use on another dry-hopped APA or IPA. I hate to use the APA's yeast on anything else.

 

[tagz]

That's a ****-ton of yeast. Definitely don't pitch it all.

 

[beardown2489]

That's a ****-ton of yeast. Definitely don't pitch it all.

He ain't lying. I'd question if one of those is too much depending on style and OG.

You really do have a lot of yeast.

 

[beardown2489]

That's a ****-ton of yeast. Definitely don't pitch it all.

He ain't lying. I'd question if one of those is too much depending on style and OG.

You really do have a lot of yeast.

 

[MikeSkril]

I don't feel to good not closing the jars tight. Can I close them tight or will that have some negative impact.

Thanks!

 

[user 204491]

I don't feel to good not closing the jars tight. Can I close them tight or will that have some negative impact.

Thanks!

I was wondering this as well. I mean the vials of yeast you buy from the LHBS are sealed shut. I left mine on loose for about a week or so, until everything settled down nice and compact like Yesfan's picture, then I tightened the lids up. Is there anything bad about that? I figured any residual gasses that would come off would be in the first week or so.