Yeast harvesting from smack pack and storing...

[NotSoNew2Brew]

As the title implies that is what am doing for the first time... I recently used Pacman yeast and found it to do awesome in colder conditions (high 50's) and decided this yeast is the bomb for my ales!

Yet I would like to have my own yeast and not dish out the coin all the time, and I also do brew once or twice a month and the yeast is not going to sit around long. I certainly am not going to wash the yeast, what a pain. I am making the starter tonight, once done i will decant, add some sterile water, give it a good swirl, and then separate out in to 4 separate Crystal Geyser plastic bottles. The question comes up, how are people disinfecting the plastic bottles, and is anyone using plastic?

If the question comes up why plastic bottles, it because they are convenient, if you've ever opened one of these warm, it is literally a Geyser and do well under pressure, and besides we drink like a case from Costco per week.

so, how do you sterilize (boil plastic?), have you used this technique before and with success? I just don't see a reason why i cant do this, its how the guys at Wyeast do it (without boiling plastic) pretty much, right? Just sayin'

 

[Riot]

I don't think those bottles while stand up to boiling temperatures, I feel like you are stuck with chemical sanitizer for those. I usually use empty pickle jars and make sure to burp them once or twice after they are stored.

 

[tagz]

Well... The wyeast guys are drinking out of the vials before packaging . Boiling won't work. You'll have to use sanatizer.