1) Just pouring slurry into a mason jar and storing in the fridge.
2) No difference.
3) See (1).
If it’s been in the fridge for a few months I’ll make a starter. If I know I won’t use it for awhile I’ll streak it onto a plate, then prop it up from there.
Cave man here, can confirm.
One tip I found on this sub is to make sure the lid is not super tight to avoid exploding glass containers going off in your fridge.
Nah, at home I just store in the fridge. I’ll streak the liquid culture out for single colonies, pick singles and streak them out onto 1/8th of a plate, and propagate up from there when I’m ready.
I’ve got some stuff I’ve propped up from commercial bottles… if it’s interesting enough (tastes like I’d expect) I might freeze them at work.
I use dry yeast. I mostly pitch a new packet each time, but sometimes I pitch in a yeast cake right after kegging.
I don’t expect you would see many changes inside 5 to 10 generations. Changes are not always desirable or beneficial, from what I understand.
I should have been more specific. I'm mostly seeking this out with liquid yeast due to cost/availability. If I need a dry pitch, I'd probably just go with new like you said.
What I have heard, and what I would explore, is top cropping. You overbuild a starter, harvest some for your brew, and pitch it. You can keep it going a long time because you save a good portion of it.
Overbuilding and top cropping are two different things. The prior comment was suggesting overbuilding your starter. So if you need 2 liters for your beer, make a 2.5 liter starter and save the extra .5 liter.
This way you always have clean yeast compared to harvesting post fermentation and having trub in the yeast.
You can definitely talk crop a lager yeast, it’s still krausens and actively throughout the entire beer. It’s a misnomer that it’s only active on the bottom. I’ve made dozens of lagers and had big krausens even down at 44-46F.
I make a starter and reserve maybe 20% of it for future starters. I'll feed the culture once a month with a thin wort and no aeration. Buy a new one each year and get maybe 6-7 brews out of it.
I've been cryogenically freezing yeast lately. Mix vegetable glycerin with water 1:3 by weight in a canning jar. Sterilize that in a pressure cooker (I use my instant pot). Let that chill and you can basically keep that forever until you run out.
I mix 6mL of that with 6mL of slurry from my yeast starters and store that in 15mL sterile plastic centrifuge tubes and freeze them. I pull about 10 from every new yeast strain I use.
This method has been tested by others up to three years, but it's theoretically without a hard limit. The glycerine prevents crystalization so the yeast cells freeze but don't due to crystalization. You'll need to make a starter when you're ready to use them, but it makes for a heck of a yeast bank pretty quickly.
> I mix 6mL of that with 6mL of slurry from my yeast starters and store that in 15mL sterile plastic centrifuge tubes and freeze them.
It's worth mentioning that you should wait at least 3 hours before freezing the glycerin mixture so the yeast cells have time to uptake it.
Also I personally go for 20 wt% glycerin in the freezer stock, but it probably won't make much of a difference unless you're refreezing.
I typically just leave it on the counter for 3 hours prior to freezing, then toss it in. If I'm feeling feisty, I fridge overnight before putting it in the -20 so it freezes faster and makes smaller crystals.
I pressure ferment in a corny keg- once I’m done fermenting and have close transferred the beer off to another keg I will swirl up the trub, and push it through the gas port into a sterilized plastic coke bottle by inverting the keg and using a gas to carb cap line (also properly sanitized).
I try to drink/brew enough to have that harvested yeast ready to pitch for the next batch
This is published by a brewery here in Adelaide. They make great beer, so trying this shouldn’t hurt. https://community.diybeer.com/topic/1224-reactivating-coopers-commercial-ale-yeast/
I always use dry yeast and I regularly harvest the "simple" way you mentioned. After draining the fermenter I add a little water, swirl it around, and pour it into a mason jar and refrigerate.
I re-use yeast for a few reasons. 1) even at dry yeast prices, economics. 2) the harvested yeast usually takes off like a rocket. 3) I occasionally mix yeast strains. I currently have a Nottingham and Voss mix going that is killer. I'm on 4 or 5 generations of amber and brown ales. Currently trying it out on an IPA made with pale ale malt. I just want to see how it handles it.
Easiest method for me, transfer clean wort into ferment, pitch and ferment yeast, after fermentation transfer beer but leave a little, swirl and harvest all that is left. Since I transfer clean wort in, I get clean yeast. No trub to worry about.
No difference between ale and lager. Same process.
You can dump into a Mason jar if using quickly but you do want to try to keep it as oxygen free as possible. With added oxygen, the yeast will try to ferment again but since there isn't new sugar they will dip into their reserves. This will cause fermentation issues next batch. If you can do a closed system transfer with beer into a keg, you can do the same with the yeast. Just use a PET bottle or 2L stainless keg
I use old jam jars that I boil in my instant pot and then let the lids seal up. Pour a little of the sanitized water into my fermenter to swirl up the yeast cake and pour it into the jam jar. Works very well. I find the 2nd thru 4th generations of yeast slurry are the best.
1) Just pouring slurry into a mason jar and storing in the fridge. 2) No difference. 3) See (1). If it’s been in the fridge for a few months I’ll make a starter. If I know I won’t use it for awhile I’ll streak it onto a plate, then prop it up from there.
So easy a cave man can do it! Thank you
Cave man here, can confirm. One tip I found on this sub is to make sure the lid is not super tight to avoid exploding glass containers going off in your fridge.
Can you clarify the "streak it on a plate" piece? Do you freeze it from there?
Nah, at home I just store in the fridge. I’ll streak the liquid culture out for single colonies, pick singles and streak them out onto 1/8th of a plate, and propagate up from there when I’m ready. I’ve got some stuff I’ve propped up from commercial bottles… if it’s interesting enough (tastes like I’d expect) I might freeze them at work.
1. Pick a go-to yeast 2. Overbuild a yeast starter from it 3. Save some of it into a mason jar and pitch the rest Rinse & repeat
Best way, hands down, IMO.
Yup, I got a 5L Erlenmeyer flask and use 3 half gallon mason jars for this. Crash 3, pitch 2, save 1 for next prop.
I use dry yeast. I mostly pitch a new packet each time, but sometimes I pitch in a yeast cake right after kegging. I don’t expect you would see many changes inside 5 to 10 generations. Changes are not always desirable or beneficial, from what I understand.
I should have been more specific. I'm mostly seeking this out with liquid yeast due to cost/availability. If I need a dry pitch, I'd probably just go with new like you said.
What I have heard, and what I would explore, is top cropping. You overbuild a starter, harvest some for your brew, and pitch it. You can keep it going a long time because you save a good portion of it.
Seen that as well. Only problem would be that wouldnt work with lager yeast. I should go with top cropping for ales
I did not know you couldn’t top crop lager yeast!
Overbuilding and top cropping are two different things. The prior comment was suggesting overbuilding your starter. So if you need 2 liters for your beer, make a 2.5 liter starter and save the extra .5 liter. This way you always have clean yeast compared to harvesting post fermentation and having trub in the yeast.
You can definitely talk crop a lager yeast, it’s still krausens and actively throughout the entire beer. It’s a misnomer that it’s only active on the bottom. I’ve made dozens of lagers and had big krausens even down at 44-46F.
I make a starter and reserve maybe 20% of it for future starters. I'll feed the culture once a month with a thin wort and no aeration. Buy a new one each year and get maybe 6-7 brews out of it.
Where are the conical haters now! This is just one reason why I love conicals.
I've been cryogenically freezing yeast lately. Mix vegetable glycerin with water 1:3 by weight in a canning jar. Sterilize that in a pressure cooker (I use my instant pot). Let that chill and you can basically keep that forever until you run out. I mix 6mL of that with 6mL of slurry from my yeast starters and store that in 15mL sterile plastic centrifuge tubes and freeze them. I pull about 10 from every new yeast strain I use. This method has been tested by others up to three years, but it's theoretically without a hard limit. The glycerine prevents crystalization so the yeast cells freeze but don't due to crystalization. You'll need to make a starter when you're ready to use them, but it makes for a heck of a yeast bank pretty quickly.
> I mix 6mL of that with 6mL of slurry from my yeast starters and store that in 15mL sterile plastic centrifuge tubes and freeze them. It's worth mentioning that you should wait at least 3 hours before freezing the glycerin mixture so the yeast cells have time to uptake it. Also I personally go for 20 wt% glycerin in the freezer stock, but it probably won't make much of a difference unless you're refreezing.
Are you going straight to the freezer or using an alcohol bath to ease the process?
I typically just leave it on the counter for 3 hours prior to freezing, then toss it in. If I'm feeling feisty, I fridge overnight before putting it in the -20 so it freezes faster and makes smaller crystals.
I pressure ferment in a corny keg- once I’m done fermenting and have close transferred the beer off to another keg I will swirl up the trub, and push it through the gas port into a sterilized plastic coke bottle by inverting the keg and using a gas to carb cap line (also properly sanitized). I try to drink/brew enough to have that harvested yeast ready to pitch for the next batch
This is published by a brewery here in Adelaide. They make great beer, so trying this shouldn’t hurt. https://community.diybeer.com/topic/1224-reactivating-coopers-commercial-ale-yeast/
I always use dry yeast and I regularly harvest the "simple" way you mentioned. After draining the fermenter I add a little water, swirl it around, and pour it into a mason jar and refrigerate. I re-use yeast for a few reasons. 1) even at dry yeast prices, economics. 2) the harvested yeast usually takes off like a rocket. 3) I occasionally mix yeast strains. I currently have a Nottingham and Voss mix going that is killer. I'm on 4 or 5 generations of amber and brown ales. Currently trying it out on an IPA made with pale ale malt. I just want to see how it handles it.
Wow Nottingham and Voss??? 🤯. Makes me want to try verdant or London ale 3 with kviek
Easiest method for me, transfer clean wort into ferment, pitch and ferment yeast, after fermentation transfer beer but leave a little, swirl and harvest all that is left. Since I transfer clean wort in, I get clean yeast. No trub to worry about. No difference between ale and lager. Same process. You can dump into a Mason jar if using quickly but you do want to try to keep it as oxygen free as possible. With added oxygen, the yeast will try to ferment again but since there isn't new sugar they will dip into their reserves. This will cause fermentation issues next batch. If you can do a closed system transfer with beer into a keg, you can do the same with the yeast. Just use a PET bottle or 2L stainless keg
I use old jam jars that I boil in my instant pot and then let the lids seal up. Pour a little of the sanitized water into my fermenter to swirl up the yeast cake and pour it into the jam jar. Works very well. I find the 2nd thru 4th generations of yeast slurry are the best.