oh dear, time to show my ignorance

[opentoideas]

Hi,

this is probably a stupid question so please show me the error of my ways

I am only brewing kits but am starting to think about yeast's

I must be missing the obvious but sice yeast is a living organism it seems reasonable that if you were to grow some yeast, as it multiplies, you could continue taking off what you needed indefinately. as long as you give it a happy home and food.

since there are lots of yeasts for sale I guess its not that simple - or we would all settle on our required yeasts and culture it ourselves.

so i guess my question is - can you from an initial purchase of yeast continue to culture it? would you want to? will it for some reason deteriorate/mutate/die for some reason?

though there are lots of posts with specifics there is no real idiots guide (which is about my level )

[anomalous_result]

Yes you can. Jim talks a bit about how to split a culture here, and there are propagation tools available from some homebrew shops (Hop & Grape for example). I think there might be issues with using older generations (not sure if there are reversion problems) but it's certainly doable.

Dried yeast is however, cheap, reliable (if you rehydrate to see you've got a viable pack), present in many award winning brews and less faff.

[opentoideas]

Thanks,

I saw Jim's how to - so i guess you could use one of the splits to start the next batch?

i figured there would be a reason for all the dried yeast packs

I am all in favor of the easy life but was curious. anything that saves a bit of money and all that.

[Jim]

Hi,

Yes you certainly can propagate yeast - however there are pitfalls.

1. If you reuse from one brew to the next over a long period of time (i.e. many generations) the yeast can pick up bacteria - the breweries (and some die hard homebrewers who will probably respond to this before long!) use acid washing to 'purify' it.

2. There is a greater risk of cross-infection from one brew to the next.

Given both the above, it isn't really worth using this technique for dry packet yeasts, as they are relatively cheap. It is worth it for propagating the more expensive liquid yeasts, though.

[opentoideas]

that was what I was thinking about - I must admit that at the moment I just get whatever kit is cheapest(Young's harvest mild at the moment) but from reading on here it seems that the yeast has a fair effect on the finished flavor.

this may be a pointless exercise with a cheapo kit but would be an interesting experiment.

I have bigger problems at the moment (and thats a whole different thread )but was intrigued about the process and if it was even possible

[Witchfinder General]

I don't know whether you are barrelling your beer or bottling it but you can use the yeast that has settled to the bottom of a bottle and propagate that in a sterilized milk bottle a few days before you brew. You can store a bottle somewhere then get it out and drink the contents when you know you're going to brew again. I've been thinking myself about buying a liquid yeast, bottling a few beers for storage of the yeast in fact, Yes I'm going to do it.

[opentoideas]

I barrel to cornies - well I am about to start anyway

I am tempted as until now I have just used the yeast from the kit and have never been impressed with it, it just seems lifeless

since I will start a brew about every 2-4 weeks it would seem sensible to try and cultivate a better yeast for my brews rather than forking out for it each time.

In the first instance I will have a go at a better dry yeast but splitting one as suggested would make sense if it can last (worst case would be almost 6 months – which is a while)

I need to stop reading on here its giving me too many ideas to try out

[opentoideas]

sorry I was not very clear

plan on using a dry yeast for the moment and looking at a liquid yeast to split as per the wyeast starter instructions.

I have other things to change as well so not making any great changes just yet but thinking about this for the future.

I didn't think there would be much point in trying to split a dried yeast though it should be possible

[opentoideas]

- its apreciated

I was not at all clear in what I said and it did read like splitting a dried yeast

[thesaintv12]

I have had great success using yeast from bottle conditioned beers. It's not that hard to do, have a play.