Yeast starter/propagation

[Mathomson75]

Where I live it is athe least a 7hr round trip to my nearest liquid yeast provider. So I have been salvaging yeast as much as I c a new but I came up with this idea and am trying it out now tell me if you all think it would work I don't see why not.

I purchased smackpack and did a small starter on a stir plate of 1 litre. Basically doubling the cell count and then put into 2 pint jars and In the fridge. Now when I go to do a brew i use 1 Jar in the starter for that brew when that's done I take the second jar and split it again with a 1 litre starter

My thoughts on this are u would have less chance of mutation and basically keep yeast longer and skip the washing and salvaging us their any reason this won't work in the long run. I know I'll go through more dme but I have easier access to that over yeast.

 

[jjw5015]

That's what I do. make around a 1.8L starter and pitch half and put the other half in a jar. next time I brew, i repeat with the jar I saved. It's basically an infinite loop.

 

[flars]

It works. I always propagate extra yeast cells in a starter to use for the next starter. I also harvest two pints of slurry from the fermentor after bottling. Have a lot of yeast on hand but if one jar would become infected there is more of the same yeast to use.

Here is a pitch rate/starter calculator with a built in over build option to do what you are doing and providing some numbers for yeast cells propagated.
http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php

 

[LLBeanJ]

http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

 

[Mathomson75]

Great glad to know I was on the right track on that note I'm new to the stir plate how long does it usually take to ferment out on it

 

[LLBeanJ]

Typically about 18-24 hours if the yeast is reasonably fresh.

 

[flars]

Great glad to know I was on the right track on that note I'm new to the stir plate how long does it usually take to ferment out on it

Typically about 18-24 hours if the yeast is reasonably fresh.

and sometimes a little longer for some strains of yeast. When you turn the stir plate off and a small krausen forms, it's still fermenting.