WPL099, what to make, any recipes? And a few other yeast hop storage questions...

[OpenSights]

Picked up a vial from my closing LHBS for free today since the “best by” date is tomorrow.

https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp099-super-high-gravity-ale-yeast

A few questions as this is my first liquid yeast. I plan on making a starter with it to hopefully store and use over and over. So while I aggressively research keeping a viable yeast colony, can anyone give me a crash course on the first few steps? How much DME/water for the first starter, temperature to pitch. Do I use a second beaker to make another starter, or just add extra DME, maybe some nutrient? I don’t have a stir plate, but do have a heat plate. I have the larger beaker too.

With a tolerance of up to 25% ABV with sugar additions during fermentation. While I don’t think I want to brew a beer that strong, I’d like to use it for stouts, meads, maybe some wine, but want to get it going first.

Anyone have experience with working with this yeast? Any recipes? Change in flavor at different ABVs?

I stocked up on dry yeast and hops. I put the hops in the brew fridge freezer. Is it ok to store yeast in the freezer?

Thanks in advance!

 

[DatsyukianDeke]

I use 4oz, by weight, in 1.25 liters of water. Boil that for 15 minutes and I get a liter of wort at 1.040. Pitch within the yeast's temp range and let it go for a day or two. Chill to settle the yeast, pour off (decant) the spent wort leaving enough in the bottom to mix up the yeast and go ahead and pitch.

When I decant and pitch, I pour another liter of starter wort into the empty flask or growler (I use both). The I mix to get all the leftover yeast mixed in and let that go for a few days. I had a vial of WLP007 that I reused 7 times with this method. Not the most scientific but it works for me.

If you wanted to keep yeast on hand for brewing, maybe you find a strain you really like, you can store it in sanitized mason jars . Just pour in the non-decanted starter and once it chills and settles the yeast will be covered by a layer of beer. Stick her in the fridge and you're all set.

Stir plate isn't totally necessary. You can just swirl, or shake, your vessel once in a while to agitate the starter.

Store yeast in the fridge, not the freezer.

 

[Miraculix]

There is a method of using glycerine for yeast freezing, but don't ask me about details. I have seen it here in the forum so the information must be somewhere here!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I stocked up on dry yeast and hops. I put the hops in the brew fridge freezer. Is it ok to store yeast in the freezer?

For the dry yeast strains that I use, storing in the fridge works (and is a recommended approach in the appropriate product information sheets).

Like other home brewing ingredients, I try to buy dry yeast fresh and use it while it's still fresh.

Links to product information sheets.

• http://fermentis.com/fermentation-solutions/you-create-beer/
• https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/en/united-states/products/brewing-yeast/
• https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/craft-series-yeasts

 

[ong]

099 will be best for barleywine, RIS, American strong ale. It’s a big beast that rips through a lot of normally unfermentable sugars, and as a result isn’t great in lower strength beers (I’ve made bitters with it as giant starters, but they’re not wonderful).

 

[Northern_Brewer]

WLP099 is a funny one, it's been suggested that it's actually a blend of two yeasts, a diastaticus beer yeast that produces the enzymes needed to break down lots of complex carbohydrates, and a wine yeast that has the alcohol tolerance to ferment the resulting sugars to a high level.

From what I understand it's not the greatest flavourwise but it's always had a following because of that ABV tolerance. Allegedly it comes from Eldridge Pope's Thomas Hardy Ale, which suggests you want a recipe like this :

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/03/lets-brew-wednesday-eldridge-pope-1967.html

 

[IslandLizard]

A stir plate is sort of essential to propagate yeast. You can easily build one.

In a pinch, look up "Shaken-not-Stirred" starter. You can use one (or more) of those clear gallon wine jugs with screw cap. Using that method, you can only make 1 liter at a time per jug. Your LHBS may still have those.

For 1.037 starter wort (recommended strength) use a DME : Water ratio of 1:10
This is by weight.
A volume of water in ml (metric) is the same as her weight (grams), e.g. 1000 ml (1 liter) weighs 1000 gram (1 kg).

Yeast calculators:
BrewUnited
Mr. Malty
YeastCalc

You cannot freeze yeast as it is, you'd kill it.
They do need to be stored in a fridge. Original package and mason jars (or repurposed jelly jars). I prefer 4 oz and 8 oz jars for longer term storage of slurries. Stick them in a (small) box together, maybe with a bottle of water, to keep their temps more even, especially during defrost cycles.

 

[IslandLizard]

Do they have other yeast you can grab? Even at $1 or 2 a piece it can be a nice way to build up a little collection.

I revived 2 PurePitch sleeves with WLP802 and WLP820 resp. that were over 2 years old (!) stored in one of my "yeast boxes" in the fridge.

Between propagation and cold crashing several times, it took a few weeks to get a pitchable amount, but it worked very fine.

 

[IslandLizard]

I stocked up on dry yeast and hops. I put the hops in the brew fridge freezer.

Does the freezer part remain frozen or is it on your inkbird controller?

Depending on how long you need to store the hops, especially after opening, deep freezing is usually best for hops. I still have hops from 2012 that are just fine, always been deep frozen.

Dry yeast can be frozen too. It keeps better that way too, IMO.

 

[OpenSights]

Does the freezer part remain frozen or is it on your inkbird controller?

Depending on how long you need to store the hops, especially after opening, deep freezing is usually best for hops. I still have hops from 2012 that are just fine, always been deep frozen.

Dry yeast can be frozen too. It keeps better that way too, IMO.

I have a full size fridge dedicated to ingredients.... and beer. Good to know dry yeast can survive the freezer! Besides the WLP099, I later ended up with WPL672. I’m not a fan of sours but the wife likes them. I appreciate them just enough to enjoy a sample. Those are my first two non-dry yeast/lacto.

Right now the freezer has about 40-50lbs of fruit and most of my hops. Wife got tired of trying to find room in the kitchen fridge for food. LOL!

Yesterday was their last day open, and I made at least one visit per day for 4 days. I stocked up on hops, but now I’m kicking myself for not buying more yeast. Hops were marked down to $1, dry yeast $.50 and started making random bundles of stuff for $1. The second to last day all 6 gallon grain buckets were $5 if half full or more, $3 if less than half full. I should have bought more grain. The remaining grains, which would have filled the back of my truck bed, back seat and passenger seat was sold to the last LHBS in my area for $100. In total I spent about $300 and walked away with well over $1k retail.... not to mention all the freebies. The very last day I bought a used keg for $15 and a box marked $15 for $5.

I was apparently one of their biggest spenders. Every $750 you spend there you get a $50 gift card. They stopped the deal when they announced they were closing, if they didn’t I was $8 away from my third gift card in two years. All my high priced items have been on Craigslist. I think that’s why I got such good deals and free stuff. I got a two port 10 gallon kettle that has a pinhole leak in one of the welds, and a two gauge co2 regulator that needs a new gauge for free.

Sad times for sure! My club has been based out of that store for over 20 years.

 

[IslandLizard]

Sad times for sure! My club has been based out of that store for over 20 years.

Sad times indeed...
But you were a good patron, helping them stay in business. Probably not much else you could have done.

These are hard times for pretty much any retail store, Between the overhead, the leases, utilities, insurance, inventory, etc. there's not much left over to live off, pay for decent health insurance, or send your kids through college. Usually when the lease comes up for renewal, choices are evaluated, lock in for another 5 years or get out of Dodge.

You could have made a killing on the yeast, but keeping 20-30 strains around takes a lot of time. Just freezing them with glycerine in tubes is the easiest. But you'll need to make at least 2 or 3 rounds of starters to get a pitchable quantity.

If you store larger amounts of grain for longer times, make sure there are no weevils or grain moths included. Check every month or so.

 

[OpenSights]

You could have made a killing on the yeast, but keeping 20-30 strains around takes a lot of time. Just freezing them with glycerine in tubes is the easiest. But you'll need to make at least 2 or 3 rounds of starters to get a pitchable quantity.

If you store larger amounts of grain for longer times, make sure there are no weevils or grain moths included. Check every month or so.

$.50 for dry yeast, $3 when I got my free one. “Freezing them with glycerine tubes...” that’s for liquid yeast or dry?

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about grains yet. At this point, I want to learn. I want to know how to mill, but at the same time I want to support the closet store. They’re about 20 minutes from me, where the Salamander is less than 5. If my new one closes, the closest one is about an hour and a half away. F that!

 

[IslandLizard]

$.50 for dry yeast, $3 when I got my free one. “Freezing them with glycerine tubes...” that’s for liquid yeast or dry?

Liquid yeast, using the thick settled slurry actually, with some glycerin added. There's a procedure for that.
Dry yeast can be frozen as is, in the original sealed pouches. I just put them all together in a ziplock bag. Frozen, I've used them 3 years after exp. date, without any problems. Once opened, their lifespan is shortened to a week or 2, due to moisture, according to Fermentis.

 

[Miraculix]

Liquid yeast, using the thick settled slurry actually, with some glycerin added. There's a procedure for that.
Dry yeast can be frozen as is, in the original sealed pouches. I just put them all together in a ziplock bag. Frozen, I've used them 3 years after exp. date, without any problems. Once opened, their lifespan is shortened to a week or 2, due to moisture, according to Fermentis.

Just seal opened packs with ducktape, push the air out before, be sure it's air tight, store cold. Have used it half a year and later after opening, no issues.

 

[OpenSights]

Some light reading tonight. My club’s last firebrew was a doppelbock. I bought 20 gallons of wort. 5 is laugering, 5 us-05 normal temp, 5 s-04 to swap from our sour barrel and the last five I did a second short boil with some specialty grains and extra hops. My intent was a doppelbock stout... but with tonight’s light reading I might have made an Eisbock with us-05.

Would this be considered an Eisbock?

If so, it might be a good candidate for the WLP099.... maybe adjust the grain bill a bit.

Thoughts?

 

[OpenSights]

Cleaned it up a bit and brought OG up. The original was scaled down to 5 gallons from 150 gallon recipe with my later additions.

 

[IslandLizard]

Would this be considered an Eisbock?

That's not an Eisbock, at least at this point, they are concentrated with freezing/thawing after fermentation.

 

[IslandLizard]

Cleaned it up a bit and brought OG up. The original was scaled down to 5 gallons from 150 gallon recipe with my later additions.

You'll need a big, big yeast starter for that brew! That will take a 2 or 3 step starter and 2 weeks or longer to grow, especially from a dated pack.

And good oxygenation when pitching, and again 12-18 hours later.