Can you put too much yeast in a starter?

[guypettigrew]

Attached is a picture of some White Labs 007 yeast harvested a month or so ago. It's in a 500ml container so, as you can see, there's quite a bit of yeast.

Would this be too much to add to a yeast starter? Should I just try pitching it direct?

Many thanks.

Guy

[Eric]

Pour off most of the beer and replace it with boiled malt extract at the same temperature. Also have another larger vessel ready also with boiled extract for when it wakes up and transfer over the active yeast with a sanitised spoon. Preferably you don't want to transfer the dead and dying cells.

Had it only been a few days since collecting, then just pitch it, but again, get the temperatures as near as practical.

[guypettigrew]

Hi Eric

How do I select out the active yeast?

Guy

[Eric]

Hi Eric

How do I select out the active yeast?

Guy

They will rise into and onto the wort. Scoop off any krausen and put it into your second container. You will likely be able to do this several times. Just keep your eye on it in case it really takes off when you might have to work hard to stop it climbing out of the jar. This will depend upon the strain and how healthy it is.

It is best to avoid pouring large amounts of unhealthy yeast into your brew. It doesn't look to me that you have is too much yeast there for a 23 litre brew after a month in a fridge. Making a new starter will let you see how active and healthy the yeast is.

[Carnot]

When I have harvested yeast I always make a starter. In my case I use about 200 g honey and around 100 ml of wet compact yeast made up to 1 litre. It goes into a conical flask and then onto a magnetic stirrer plate with a magnetic stirrer. Cover the top with a coffee filter and spin away. 12 hours is usually good enough to get it roaring away, and then I pitch it into the fermenter usually 20-23 litre batch size. I either take the yeast out of the cone in my Brewbucket with a spoon, or from the bottom valve of my chronical fermenter. I have 4 brewbuckets that are used for primary fermentation and the 2 chronicals are usually used for secondary/ conditioning.

The yeast starter never fails- at least so far. I have kept wet yeast for up to one week in the refridgerator with no adverse effects.