Yeast Brick

[simie]

Greetings Brewers:
Has anyone ever bought and used a brick of yeast. I can buy a brick of say fermentis US-05 much cheaper than a box of the same yeast in 28 packs. We primarily brew IPA's and pale ales and US-05 works for most of our beers. Anyone see an issue with this? I know sterilization would be paramount but it seems that if they package it this way then it must be meant to use. Thanks in advance brewers

Simie

 

[zoonose]

I've gotten a few bricks of different kinds of yeast from work, no problems here.

 

[SpottedDogBrewing]

Send a link to where to buy these bricks thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[simie]

Siciliano's Market in Grand Rapids has them. 500 gms for about $60.00

www.sicilianosmkt.com They do mail order.

Simie

 

[fearwig]

I think the benefit of US-05 (over liquid chico) is shelf life and price. I don't see what you gain by spending $60 on a brick of yeast when you could as easily make a "brick" of yeast in mason jars over the course of two or three batches, all for $4.

 

[simie]

fearwig, do you use the method that was discussed here a few months ago? Where you put aside some clean yeast and build it up from a previous batch before pitching.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

Thanks Simie

 

[fearwig]

Drastically overcomplicated. Yeast cake slurry is good in mason jars in the fridge for many months. Supposedly longer if you "rinse" it to remove the beer (I don't bother). Viability goes down with time (not as fast as MrMalty.com suggests), but you can build up that sample with a starter if it's on the older side.

I just pitched 500ml of saved yeast slurry (about one cake, that's the compacted volume) that's just short of 3 months old. That's a similar amount to what MrMalty suggests for that age. It took off on schedule. A little fast, actually, kinda worried it was a slight overpitch--we'll see.