What is the better way to maintain my own yeast supply?

[EyePeeEh]

Can I step up a starter until I have an extra 100 billion cells to save? Or should I wash yeast from the carboy after fermentation? Any information to explain would be so greatly appreciated.

 

[BendBrewer]

I just reuse yeast cakes. Rack and brew the same day. Scoop out half the cake and dump another batch right on top. Don't even have to clean out the bucket. Huge time saver.

 

[LVBen]

On my 1st batch of my pale ale, I just reused my yeast vial and scooped up some of the yeast cake at the bottom of the bucket. My sanitation process was to rinse the vial and cap with warm tap water before scooping it. I used that yeast on my 2nd batch and the beer still came out GREAT! I submitted two of the bottles to the annual homebrew club competition and got a 2nd place in the american ale category with 34 points. I beat out the other 5 american ales, but didn't have enough points for 1st place. The reason I didn't get a higher score wasn't because of off-tastes or infections but because they wanted more of a malt backbone, because I didn't use any specialty malts.

I don't know how many times I'll be able to scoop and store the yeasts before it turns bad, but I'm not going to stop until it does.

BTW: I don't use starters. I just take the yeast out of the fridge and leave it over night so it warms up to room temp before I pitch it right out of the vial.

 

[MalFet]

Both stepping up a starter and washing yeast will get you a usable quantity of yeast cells. Beyond that, I'm not sure what kind of information you are looking for. Care to specify? I would not recommend pitching on a yeast cake for the reasons outlined here. If you want to store yeast for any length of time, things get more complicated.

 

[EyePeeEh]

Do I have a better shot at maintaing healthy yeast using one technique over the other? It seems like it would be easier for me and healthier/ cleaner for the yeast if I "over-step" my starter and pitch what my batch needs and save the rest for the next starter for the next batch. Is there inherent benefit or sacrifice in allowing the yeast to go through a full fermentation and rounding them up after? Or should I pamper them with gentle starter-gravity wort to grow them but not stress them? I'm not even sure my general approach is the right one. My goal is to maintain a couple of strains of yeast so I can brew my favorite beers and save money on yeast.

 

[MalFet]

Do I have a better shot at maintaing healthy yeast using one technique over the other? It seems like it would be easier for me and healthier/ cleaner for the yeast if I "over-step" my starter and pitch what my batch needs and save the rest for the next starter for the next batch. Is there inherent benefit or sacrifice in allowing the yeast to go through a full fermentation and rounding them up after? Or should I pamper them with gentle starter-gravity wort to grow them but not stress them? I'm not even sure my general approach is the right one. My goal is to maintain a couple of strains of yeast so I can brew my favorite beers and save money on yeast.

If you're talking about a couple of weeks, both should be more-or-less equivalent. I would lean towards the starter, because you'll be able to better ensure that you are storing yeast with good glycogen reserves. If you are talking about longer term storage, you might want to start looking at other alternatives like freezing. As long as you've got even a few million cells, you can build up to however many you want, but the fewer you start with the more you have to worry about sanitation, viability, and genetic drift.

 

[EyePeeEh]

So my thought is to purchase some WYeast and make an extra big starter and save some yeast before I pitch. Then when I go to brew again in a few weeks, wake up the little bit and make another extra big starter an save some of that before I pitch. Then... (see where I'm going with this...? I understand that I only want to keep this going for 5 or 6 generations or I am bound to end up with yeast that have mutated to a point where they behave totally differently, but is there anything wrong with stretching them out over time? If I brew, say, every 3-5 weeks?

 

[MalFet]

So my thought is to purchase some WYeast and make an extra big starter and save some yeast before I pitch. Then when I go to brew again in a few weeks, wake up the little bit and make another extra big starter an save some of that before I pitch. Then... (see where I'm going with this...? I understand that I only want to keep this going for 5 or 6 generations or I am bound to end up with yeast that have mutated to a point where they behave totally differently, but is there anything wrong with stretching them out over time? If I brew, say, every 3-5 weeks?

Sounds fine. You'll want to step up your initial starter gradually, likely over at least 3 steps. The first step should be small and gentle. It's not technically mutation that you need to be worried about, but you are correct that it will be a good idea to re-seed every 5-6 batches. Be methodical about your sanitation. It will be more important than it has been for anything you've done before. Good luck!

 

[badmajon]

re: yeast washing....

If you plan to do this, make sure you use a high flocculation yeast strain. Really, some yeast strains are HORRIBLE for washing. The damn yeast just floats around forever and the washing process takes days. No thanks.

re: repitching cakes

This works fine for similarly styled ales, but I wouldnt say, rack a lager wort onto a stout cake or something like that.

 

[MalFet]

Also, when you crash your starters, make sure you crash them nice and hard. 48 hours at the back of the fridge minimum before you decant them. You don't want to be systematically pouring off all of the late floccers.