Yeast starter or not ?

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
User avatar
IPA
Under the Table
Posts: 1731
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 am
Location: France Gascony

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by IPA » Thu Jun 01, 2017 4:09 pm

"I guess the most importatnt thing to bear in mind is sanitation"

Always
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

JabbA

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by JabbA » Thu Jun 01, 2017 4:25 pm

What are the merits of taking a sample from the fermenter, over harvesting from a bottle that's been bottle conditioned at the end of fermentation? I notice a much larger yeast deposit in your sample bottle than you tend to get in a bottle.

I did intend to reuse the yeast cake from a Wit I made recently but it all went a funky (I didn't sanitise the orange i added to the FV properly). I bottled most of the beer and ditched the yeast cake, hoping to rouse the yeast from on of the bottles, the beer tasted fine after two weeks in the bottle.

Cheers,
Jamie

johnluc
Steady Drinker
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2011 11:46 am
Location: sw france

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by johnluc » Thu Jun 01, 2017 4:27 pm

Meatymc wrote:IPA - very interesting posts.

I've a current post on the Yeast forum enquiring about trying Slopes but wanting to split the initial sample to store. Starting to get rather technical so may try your method on a standrad yeast and then, if I don't cock it up, give Slopes a try, but again, using your method to capture a sample for future use.

I'm also going to try and 'recover' some yeast from bottled St Austell Brewerys 'Proper Job' which I had on draft recently and rated highly. Again, if I'm successful in growing enough for a full brew, I'm going to retain some using your method.

I guess the most importatnt thing to bear in mind is sanitation.
i have tried freezing, slopes, plates. splits etc, been using IPA's method for months now and can say i have not had one issue, would highly recomend

User avatar
IPA
Under the Table
Posts: 1731
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 am
Location: France Gascony

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by IPA » Fri Jun 02, 2017 6:48 am

JabbA wrote:What are the merits of taking a sample from the fermenter, over harvesting from a bottle that's been bottle conditioned at the end of fermentation? I notice a much larger yeast deposit in your sample bottle than you tend to get in a bottle.

I did intend to reuse the yeast cake from a Wit I made recently but it all went a funky (I didn't sanitise the orange i added to the FV properly). I bottled most of the beer and ditched the yeast cake, hoping to rouse the yeast from on of the bottles, the beer tasted fine after two weeks in the bottle.

Cheers,
Jamie
" I notice a much larger yeast deposit in your sample bottle than you tend to get in a bottle"

I think that you have answered your own question!
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

BarnBrian

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by BarnBrian » Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:52 pm

[quote=IPA post_id=817144 time=1496225485 user_id=9129]
[quote="donchiquon"]@IPA I'm just wondering about the pros and cons of various harvesting methods.

Is there any reason why you wouldn't harvest the next yeast sample from the starter that you build rather than from the hopped fermenting wort?[/quote]

The reason that I use the fermenting wort is that what I am doing is creating 500 ml of beer with a thick layer of clean yeast on the bottom. And by tasting the beer before re-using the yeast you will know whether or not it is contaminated. Also the yeast stores very well in its environment surrounded by beer. As I said two years is not exceptional to store yeast in this way. I have recovered yeast from several bottles of beer that were between 35 and 40 years old. My advice is to give it a try you will not be disappointed. I now use a large sanitised syringe to remove the fermenting wort. Sometimes I remove two samples as a back up.
[/quote]
I'll definitely be trying your method on my next brew day.

Brian

Steak & Eggs
Sober
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:20 pm

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by Steak & Eggs » Mon Aug 14, 2017 10:28 pm

Having read IPA's method I decided to give it a go. I took a sample from my last brew (for which I had used a liquid yeast aiming to get a particular taste) and put it in a sanitised, plastic 500ml bottle with a closable drinking spout.

I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet but the first lesson that I have learned is that the fermentation continues for longer than the hydrometer may indicate. Having had unchanged gravity reasons for three days from the FV from which the sample had been taken, I believed that it was time to close the drinking spout of the sample bottle and that the brew was ready to bottle. However, for the last six days I have had to release the pressure in the plastic bottle on three occasions as the bottle has been deformed by continuing fermentation.

There is a substantial deposit in the bottle and I look forward to using it in the near future with a suitable brew.

S&E

User avatar
alexlark
Under the Table
Posts: 1403
Joined: Thu May 02, 2013 12:29 pm
Location: Rhondda, South Wales

Re: Yeast starter or not ?

Post by alexlark » Tue Aug 15, 2017 1:14 pm

I've got a large syringe ready to try this method.

I picked up a bag of DME yesterday so going to test out my DIY stir plate with the dregs from a few bottles of Proper Job then harvest with the syringe once in the FV.

Post Reply