Ducatiboy.... my yeast starter

[Ducatiboy stu]

Ok..

How I have done my recent yeast starter

The story

I bought a w1728 about 18months ago......maybe longer...

It sat in my fridge for 18 months. Smacked ( shit happens with kids ..etc)

Pulled it out of the fridge about 2mnths ago... decided to make a starter which I thought would be ready by the start of the Grafton-Kyogle-Bellingen-Yamba-Spork-Old Bar annual brew thing

The yeast was some what slow

My method has always been to make a starter of 1020sg wort. Why....? Because yeast turns sugar into Alc. Make a big SG starter and you end up with a lot of Alc quickly... yeast starters need nutrients and feeding

I made a 1ltr 1020 starter in a 1.25ltr coke bottles

Well I have been giving the bottle a good shake every other day and squeezing the sides while I crack the cap and let out the pressure

Yeast has been sitting at about 10-15*c during the whole time

There are some very nice clumps of yeast floating around

Cracked the cap fully and had a smell of the yeast today.

Fresh good yeast does not have a strong smell.

Yeast had a slight fruity smell. Smelt like a good yeast should smell like

Yeast is very hardy.

You dont need much yeast to make a starter,

Dont try to make big starters straight up. Start small and grow it

You dont need fancy equipment like stir plates and fancy flasks to make a starter...yes it can help....but you dont need it

Make your 1st starter at about 1020 or even less...

Big SG's are not needed for starters..start your starter small

Yeast will last years in the fridge. Keep your master starters in the fridge with a pure malt wort

Malt has nutrients, Sugar does not

 

[Yob]

Dunno about storing on wort Stu, you really want yeast to be inert during storage and to be dormant. A fridge isn't cold enough to completely stop the metabolism of yeast and it may well continue to try and adapt and mutate.

Agree with most other points. Particularly starting old yeast on 1.020 or less wort.

What's the theory on storing on wort?

Stirplates rock and they keep yeast in growth phase, once oxygen is depleted they swap front aerobic (growth) to anaerobic (ferment) and it's not great for them to be switching to and fro. Doesn't take long for oxygen to get depleted either

 

[mje1980]

I love my stirplate. Necessary ? No, but fermentation temp control isn't necessary either, but I don't ferment without it, except for saisons and brett beers

 

[Dave70]

Yeah. I dunno if we canoodle yeast to much. My standard slacker practice is - if not pitching directly onto previous cake - store the dregs in the bottom of the fermenter in PET bottle and store it in with the beers in the keezer. This has been for months on some occasions. I'll wash it a day or two prior to use then make a one or two liter starter. If it fires and smells nice and 'bready', into the wort she goes. If not, I've got time to buy a new one. Currently got a 3056 thats been shoved in the corner since last summer.

Certainly, low temps don't halt the critters doing their thing. Virtually minutes after you remove the PET from the chill and crack the lid the whole lot wants to start climbing out.

Basically I'm only a trip to Dick Smith away from a stirplate after butchering an old PC for the fan and magnets. Also considered using a fish tank aerator if I can devise some kind of sanitized air intake system.

 

[TheWiggman]

I'd argue that you did make a big starter at 1l of 1.020. Given the number of viable cells would be very low that's quite a large volume for them to tackle. I would have used a smaller starting volume.
And whilst yeast is hardy, I don't believe all yeast is created equally and some will be more tolerant than others to storage. I've made a starter from 10 month old 1728 and it did the job nicely, but after using the same starting technique (500ml 1.020 wort > 2l 1.040 wort) on 1098 it had notable diacetyl in the bottles. Kegged was ok, bottles it was noticeable. I've never had diacetyl using fresh yeast with good pitching quantities (and all the other things that go with it like leaving it on the yeast cake etc.)

I'd personally turf it and fork out the $12 for a new pack. Actually, while you're talking up this process and/or starting a new troll yeast-related thread why don't you try splitting the batch you were going to pitch this into? One batch - use the recultured yeast. Other batch, use a fresh (<3m) 1728 pack started with the typical 1l of 1.040 using the trusty P.E.T. bottle.
This would be a prime opportunity to see the effects keeping yeast might have. I mean this honestly. Pass onto others in a blind test and see if they notice a difference, or if they can pick faults in the old yeast.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You mileage will vary with yeast.

I have has some that didnt really like multiple regens

For me w1728 has always played well.

I am also pretty anal when it comes to anything coming near my yeast.

Lots of every sanitiser known to man