Dried Yeast Question

[Schober]

Hi all,

I have successfully cultured yeast from the sludge at the bottom of the fermenter, however I can't help but wonder if there is a better way to go (especially considering I'm using the safale 04 and the WB06 dried yeast).

Has anyone successfully tried the following or a variation of it?

Example procedure:
1-Remove 3g of yeast from a 11.5g sachet
2-Use 3g in an overnight 0.5L culture (to pitch a 15L batch)
3-Store remaining 8.5g of yeast in fridge for later

This just seems more sensible than storing jars of yeast washed in sterilised water in the fridge.

What do you think?

 

[pimpsqueak]

Hi all,

I have successfully cultured yeast from the sludge at the bottom of the fermenter, however I can't help but wonder if there is a better way to go (especially considering I'm using the safale 04 and the WB06 dried yeast).

Has anyone successfully tried the following or a variation of it?

Example procedure:
1-Remove 3g of yeast from a 11.5g sachet
2-Use 3g in an overnight 0.5L culture (to pitch a 15L batch)
3-Store remaining 8.5g of yeast in fridge for later

This just seems more sensible than storing jars of yeast washed in sterilised water in the fridge.

What do you think?

I think that in the morning, when the more knowledgeable folk read your question they will say something along the line of... Dry yeasts are not meant to be stepped up in any way. They are designed to pitch directly into your wort and by making a starter you may in fact be doing more harm than good.

Harvest from yeast cake = good idea.
Harvest from Krausen = better idea.
Don't be cheap and simply buy another pack of yeast = best idea.

BTW, you don't need to culture from the yeast cake, just visit Mr Malty and figure out how much of the slurry to save and pitch with.

 

[Wolfy]

Example procedure:
1-Remove 3g of yeast from a 11.5g sachet
2-Use 3g in an overnight 0.5L culture (to pitch a 15L batch)
3-Store remaining 8.5g of yeast in fridge for later

This just seems more sensible than storing jars of yeast washed in sterilised water in the fridge.

What do you think?

For 15L of 1.045 wort you need about 125 billion cells, which (depending on the pack-yeast-age) is approx 8g.
If you were to make a starter with 'ideal' conditions, you'd expect at max about 50billon cells from 500ml.
You'd need at least a 1.25L starter and closer to 24-36hours - if you had a stir-bar and all that - to build up the same number of cells in 8g of dry yeast.

Most people find the effort, cost of LDME and the fact that dry-yeast is manufactured and packed full of all the stuff it needs to kick-off to a good start all mean that making a starter from dry-yeast is not really worth the effort. But if you wanted to, there is no reason you couldn't, just ensure you make it big enough and give the yeast time to grow.

 

[Schober]

Thanks pimpsqueak and wolfy!

According to Mr Malty I'll only need somewhere around 150-200ml of slurry from the fermenter, which is about what I was using before. To save this yeast I was washing it several times with chilled boiled water, and stored it at 4oC. I was getting about 3-4x 200ml of yeast. Then to wake it up the night before brew day I would inoculate 500ml of 1.040 wort.

This works well, but it would be SO much easier to use a small proportion of dried yeast e.g. 3g to pitch 500ml of nice warmed wort overnight before brew day.

Cheers,
Schobes