What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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guypettigrew
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What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by guypettigrew » Fri Aug 04, 2017 6:20 pm

As the title says. What sort of containers do you keep your harvested yeast in?

I've been using square plastic pots with flip top spring loaded lids which seal tight when you close a lever.

But the lid is in two parts, held together with a spring. It's completely unsuitable for storing liquid yeast because the inside of the lid grows all sorts of moulds and bugs. It's impossible to pull the lid apart, so I have to rely on a week long soak in quadruple strength Starsan to kill everything off.

The advantage of the pots is that, as the yeast continues to produce CO2, it's easy to flip the spring loaded lid to let the gas out without letting air in. It's obvious when the pressure is building up because the lid lifts slightly.

Although none of my harvested yeast has got infected (yet !) I really don't want to continue to take the risk.

So, what do you use? And how do you know when the excess gas needs releasing?

Thanks.

Guy

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Re: What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by vacant » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:14 pm

I use glass jars from a 1970's yoghurt maker similar to this. I also use one of the jars to store my san francisco sour dough starter. I keep the lid slightly loose.

The 170g Colman's mustard jars are also good, i.e. easy to clean, lids don't trap crud.
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Fil
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Re: What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by Fil » Sat Aug 05, 2017 12:16 am

jam jars steam sanitised in a pressure cooker for longer than a week, and lucozade 330ml/500ml? (Small) bottles chemically sanitised for short term (use within a week),

the pet lucazade bottles will take a bung/airlock for when revitalising thanks to their wider mouths.

for relieving excess co2 i simply dont screw tight lids until the samples have chilled right down to dornmancy temps.
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Dave S
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Re: What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by Dave S » Sat Aug 05, 2017 12:03 pm

I use 200mL ointment jars well sanitised and with the lids loose. I've kept some samples for a couple of months like this.
Best wishes

Dave

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Re: What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by f00b4r » Sat Aug 05, 2017 6:24 pm

Glass jars that are sterilised in a pressure cooker along with silicone transfer tubing and a fully stainless steel gravy ladle, which I use to fill the jars with.
As Fil says just don't tighten the lids and CO2 will escape.

guypettigrew
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Re: What do you store your harvested yeast in?

Post by guypettigrew » Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:19 pm

Thanks everyone. Glass seems to be the way forward.

And thanks f00b4r for the ladle suggestion. My conical FV lets me harvest some yeast, but there's always loads left behind after racking the beer off. Scooping it out is so flippin' obvious I'm embarrassed it's not occurred to me before!

Guy

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