First Attempt At Yeast Farming...

[James Squire]

Hello brewers,

Just after a bit of feedback on the method I recently used to farm some yeast. I have never attempted this before and want to know if im on the right track.

After racking a brew into secondary last week I thought I might try to revive some of the yeasties out of the trub that remained. I drained off all the liquid possible and was left with only the solid trub. I then added around 500ml of filtered water and stirred this into the trub.

Using a sanitised glass I scooped out two glasses full and tipped into a sanitised jar. I placed a lid on the jar, shook, and then fridged it.

After fifteen minutes or so I removed from fridge to find the solids sitting on the bottom and lots of murky liquid sitting above. I tipped off most of the murky liquid and replaced it with clean filtered water, then shook and put back into the refridgerator.

After fifteen minutes I removed again and repeated the process of tipping the murky water and replacing with the clean. I repeated this process around five times total then left for 24 hrs in the fridge.

After 24 hrs, I replaced the water one more time then 24 hrs later split into several smaller (50ml) tubes. Tubes are now sitting in the fridge and looking just like newly bought liquid yeast vials.

Is this an ok process to use???

JS

 

[hockadays]

sounds good to me.
You could check it against the thread on yeast farming.

Matt

 

[Stuster]

There are a few problems with this process. Firstly, you need to use pre-boiled water. Filtering water does not sanitize it. The solids are not really what you want. Unfortunately, you really want the murky water that you threw out. :blink: You may still have enough yeast there so don't despair.

Have a read of Chiller's post. It is airlocked at the top of the Common Ground forum, or walk this way.

 

[James Squire]

Oh spewin!

I was under the impression it was the solids that I was after! Bugger!

I'll see how one of these vials go, otherwise might have to put it down to experience and try to reculture off my next liquid yeast and actually keep the murky stuff next time.

What are my chances of having active yeast remaining seeing as I was pretty thorough in chucking the murky stuff and replacing until I had clear liquid left?

 

[MVZOOM]

James,

Why don't you take all of the vials that you have and start them off in one larger vessel - ie.. take 1l of boiled water, dissolve 100g of malt into it. Wait till room temp, pitch each of the vials in and shake to buggary.

Then farm the yeast from there - or pitch into a new brew (you have a fermentor free!) and start again?


Cheers - Mike

 

[Steve]

JS - dont sweat! After your secondarys done and you've racked it to bulk prime or bottle just pour some water into secondary and draw off a cups worth through the tap from secondary. Theres still plenty of yeast at the bottom of secondary. Put the cups worth of yeast in a clean plastic bottle and put in the fridge, LEAVE ALONE, make a starter up from that for your next brew. Easy
Cheers
Steve

 

[sintax69]

http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/yeast_harv_freeze.html

Try this site just stop at the point where he adds the glycerin unless you want to try freezing some as well .The site has some nice photos that show the color of the slurry etc

Cheers

 

[Hoops]

Yeah sorry JS but you did the exact opposit to what you needed - you kept the crap and threw out the good yeast.
Have a thorough read of Chillers thread as posted above as this describes the whole thing in detail.
Remeber to make sure everything is STERILE not just clean.

Hoops

 

[Ross]

JS,

I used to split/wash yeast trub, but found it a lot of work with mixed results.
i now just divide the smackpak (before it's smacked) into 10 vials & share half with a mate. It's so quick & easy, I would never go back to trub cleaning.

cheers Ross

 

[James Squire]

Hey Guys,

Just an update... it appears that I've been lucky this time. Last night I made up 1L of wort and threw in all the vials to see if I could get it kicking (as per Mike's suggestion, cheers). This morning after 12 hrs things are starting to happen. It would seem that I didn't quite manage to chuck out all of the good yeast! Thank god! At least I now understand the process for next time! Thanks all!

JS

 

[jagerbrau]

Ross i take it then you step it up with starters, to get back up to a viable pitching rates.
cheers David

 

[MHD]

JS,

I used to split/wash yeast trub, but found it a lot of work with mixed results.
i now just divide the smackpak (before it's smacked) into 10 vials & share half with a mate. It's so quick & easy, I would never go back to trub cleaning.

cheers Ross

[post="122822"][/post]​

Why before smacking? why not let them multiply on the wort in the pack and then separate that?

 

[sintax69]

Ross

Please explain!!!

what do you store it in / do you store it under sterile water
how do you split it syringe or just pour it out
where is the yeast in them in the bag you pop or is it in the outer bag

cheers

 

[lucas]

+1 member waiting to hear ross' method

 

[NRB]

where is the yeast in them in the bag you pop or is it in the outer bag

Outer bag.

 

[James Squire]

Well folks,

The starter made with the vials of incorrectly washed trub is now pitched into a brew and is firing away nicely. Airlock bubbling beautifully. I was lucky this time and thanks to everyone's help here I'll do things properly next time.

Just for interests sake, is there many of you out there that use the trub washing yeast farming method? I see Ross farms using a different method, are there other methods people are using?

For those of you who do use the trub washing method, how many generations would you continue to use the yeast for? I guess any more than two is a fair risk huh...

JS

 

[razz]

G'day JS. I've just been washing some Irish ale yeast with cooled boiled water and storing it in some small plastic vials I got off one of the guys on here. (thanks again Doglet) I split each final wash into 5 vials. The good thing about Ross's method is the samples he is storing are pure with no fermented beer on them, so there is no chance of autolysis. With washing my yeast from secondary fermentation I have to keep washing out the beer to prevent eventual autolysis. As far as how many times do I keep using them, the current batch (irish) was taken from the fermenter after 3 brews. It's trial and error for me at this stage but as long as they look and smell okay then that will be my guide. I'm just building a kolsch starter (1st gen) on the stir plate and I will store some yeast from it using the wash method. This will give me a 2nd gen yeast rather than 4th or 5th.

 

[Ross]

Ross i take it then you step it up with starters, to get back up to a viable pitching rates.
cheers David

[post="122851"][/post]​

Yes, sure do...

 

[Stuster]

Have a look at posts 12 and 14 on this thread. I believe Ross splits the pack before smacking it using a syringe. I think he may be right to split before smacking. The yeast are ready to go, with the right cell resources to grow provided by the culturing done by wyeast. It seems better to keep them asleep rather than waking them up with the nutrients and then putting them back to sleep again. Anything to add, TL?

JS, as far as I know, the most common advice is that up to six generations should be ok, assuming good sanitation techniques.

 

[Ross]

Ross

Please explain!!!

what do you store it in / do you store it under sterile water
how do you split it syringe or just pour it out
where is the yeast in them in the bag you pop or is it in the outer bag

cheers

[post="123021"][/post]​

I don't smack it first, because I don't want my vials containing yeast that's still multiplying, I prefer to store the dormant virgin yeast as supplied by the manufacturer.
The yeast is in the main pack - the bubble is the nutrient.
I simply sterilise my vials & add a small quantity of sterile water to each. I then sterilse the wyeast packet snip the corner & fill each tube, cap & store in fridge. Done in a few minutes. Some guys use a syringe to draw the yeast from the packet & then insert it into the vials under the water - this lowers risk of contamination further, but I think it's unecessary over kill. When you do the trub wash method your yeast is getting far more contact with the air than when you simply pour straight from the smackpak into the vials.
Then it's just a case of stepping up your starter in the usual manner.

cheers Ross