I think I'm Going to Stop Trying to Reculture Yeast

[Fat Bastard]

Honestly, I think it's a waste of time and a pain in the arse.

I love the variety afforded by liquid yeasts and plan to continue to use them, but trying to recover and reuse them is a bloody pain.

I'm currently trying to precisely target my starter sizes and nearly every time I've tried to recover, rinse and reculture, it's caused some minor drama with the taste of my beer. The rinsed slurry calcs seem a bit hit and miss and at least with an aged vial from white labs you can have a much better guess at how many of the '100 Billion Cells" are still viable and calculate your starter steps from that, without having to resort go the guesswork of the rinsed slurry calc and it's attendant questions of is it thick or thin and how much of it is trub/break material/crap.

I'm not a frequent brewer and to be honest, the guesswork involved in recovering and reculturing seems like false economy to me (unless you're a microbiologist), given that my average brew constitiutes a full day and a bit of my labour on my rig that cost me heaps of time and a bit less money and 2/3/4 weeks of waiting time due to my limited fermenter space to brew less than awesome beer.

Please feel free to discuss my hypothesis here.

Cheers,

FB

 

[Lecterfan]

I also gave it away and am much happier and more satisfied for it. It's a fun part of learning the hobby/craft etc, but I'll not bother with it again. My experiences echo what you have written, although I'm sure it's not everyone's experience and plenty will bang on in the contrary position (which is, of course, fine).

 

[philmud]

I'm with you FB, I threw out my yeast vials that were in my fridge just last week. Even splitting packs doesn't work out for me as I just don't brew often enough. I may revisit, but for now I'm keeping it simple.

 

[manticle]

I stopped yonks ago. Was a fun idea and I bought test tubes, made my own tt rack etc but I'm always making different styles, using different yeasts and the price of liquid is not high enough to warrant the extra effort. At most, I'll take a bit of slurry from a batch for another when appropriate or do an ocassional top crop but mostly it's new packs each brew.

 

[Blind Dog]

Apart from Bedford I've pretty much given up, but blowed if I don't love that yeast. So until the bar stewards at white labs make if full time I'm stuck with splitting and / or saving to reculture. Bar stewards

 

[peas_and_corn]

Yeah, I looked into the whole keeping a yeast bank thing and decided that it just wasn't worth it. I would rather just spend the extra money and save the hassle, really. It's a nice idea to have a decent yeast bank of 10 or so yeasts that I like on hand, but... eh.

 

[Blind Dog]

OT

Plus, FB, you need to post more

Just seeing a pic of Alexei brings back memories of the young ones and 'hello John'. Only prize I got in school was for translating that song into German. Happy daze

 

[Fat Bastard]

OT

Plus, FB, you need to post more

Just seeing a pic of Alexei brings back memories of the young ones and 'hello John'. Only prize I got in school was for translating that song into German. Happy daze

Remnds me of my high school German lessons where I asked the teacher what the German word for "Melons" was, to use in a free writing exercise. "Ich mochte auf Ihrer Melone pissen" I got in trouble for that one!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels ths way about yeast.. I'm looking for minor improvements to my beer here, and the hobby has gone well beyond making cheap drinkable beer. I'm looking for an extra point or two from the pointy heads judging the 2015 NSW homebrew comp, without carpetbombing the bloody thing with 2 entries in every category.

Anyone want to buy a bunch of autoclavable plastic vials?

 

[Blind Dog]

Barry had 33 entries apparently thus year (in another thread. I'm anal but not anal enough to count so done else's entries).

I reckon 4 or 5 yeasts will cover just about every style. 1 fruity ale, 1 clean ale, 1 lager, 1 belgian and maybe 1 hefe. Now just to find them

 

[Fat Bastard]

Heh, 33 beers is pretty close to my my total amount of brews over 3 years of all grain brewing. I'm sure Barry runs his own race like the rest of us though and brews to his capabilities and available time, and given that I got to taste some of the beers from guys who scored highly last year's comp in the 2013 Xmas in July lotto, I'm certain his beers are very, very good!

That being said, I've never brewed a beer specifically for a competition, and I probably never will. I'd just like to cut the variables down where I can. I know my gear is good, I can now ferment in stainless, and I trust my taste enough to know my recipes are for the most part, good 'un's

 

[Blind Dog]

Reckon your right. You either brew for comps or for yourself. If what you like happens to fit a comp style that's a bonus. Right now drinking an American brown that scored 68 in the states but is a gorgeously complex beer. Interested to hear what the judges think, but personally reckon I'd gave to dial back roasted malts and hops to fit an arbitrary style and end up with an emaciated beer

 

[Blind Dog]

But I'm entering 35 next year

 

[Midnight Brew]

There is always the option of freezing yeast at minimal effort in the "Lets Freeze Some Yeast Thread". It does rely on calculations of stepping up but so far in my experience you take the vial out of the freezer and let it thaw then into a 50ml starter for a day or 2 and shake as you walk past it then into a 500ml and then 1L. Does the job every time but it depends if you want to make all the starters for it. Its a great option for yeast you cant get all year round.

Might be just as much hassle if that is what you are looking to avoid but worth a read to consider it.

 

[Yob]

Not to mention, you can select the most perfectly performing yeast to bank, which often isn't a first pitch from a fresh pack/vial..

While I agree with the op in that it can take a bit of work understanding the slurry settings, all the info is there, compact yeast = settled compact yeast, non yeast percentage = well rinsed or lazy rinsed.

I think I'll keep freezing too, I've not had results less than expected and in most cases far beyond my expectations, is frightfully easy and the yeast will keep for years.

Each to their own though, I see it almost like a second hobby.

 

[menoetes]

I'll fly in the face of popular opinion and say that I am doing it and will continue to do so. I'm a bit cheap and get a special little shiver of delight when I think about the fact I've used a $14 yeast over 8 times and am still going...

...but I will also admit that it can be a pain in the ass. I have to remember prepare the yeast-starter days in advance of my brew-day and the same thing with prepping to harvest etc. Like someone else once on here commented 'I sometimes feel like I am becoming a slave to my yeast'.

Edit: I was flying in the face of popular opinion until Yob beat me to it & decided to be so darn supportive too... Now I don't feel like a rebel anymore :blush:

 

[dago001]

I have been farming yeast for a while, and just said to Mrs LB the other day that I am going to stop. After dumping 36 litres of beer the other day because of the yeast, I have had enough. If I can't reuse the yeast immediately, im dumping it from now on.

 

[contrarian]

While the idea of saving and storing yeast is compelling I really don't have the time, equipment or inclination to do it. I try to get a run of brews out of a liquid pack which will be 4-8 depending on style but just use a scoop of trub and yeast cake into a clean fermenter. Certainly not best practice but quick and easy and I've been happy with the results.

 

[mje1980]

I wrote a big reply but my shit hole internet fucked up me posting it, so here's the short version.


I'm also an infrequent brewer, and quite lazy. I'd always end up throwing out older yeast samples, because it always seemed a bit of a lottery to try to revive them.

But then I got a stir plate. Since then my success rate has been 100%. I revived a 6 month old slurry of saison yeast. I wanted to get some consistency to my yeast handling, so despite having a big whack of slurry, I added 80g ( put the flask on a scale ) of it to a 1.5 litre slurry, and let it rip. Came to life just fine and I pitched it into a saison, which finished at 1.004.

Just the other day I got an 11 month old top crop of wyeast German ale out of the fridge, and added it to a 1.5 litre starter. Took 36+ hours but had a nice thick krausen, so I pitched to a 1.062 ale, and overnight at 16c, it had a nice thick krausen.

I don't mind if I only get 2-3 uses out of a smack pack, or white labs tube, but now with the stir plate, I'm much more confident about reviving old yeast.

 

[warra48]

While the idea of saving and storing yeast is compelling I really don't have the time, equipment or inclination to do it. I try to get a run of brews out of a liquid pack which will be 4-8 depending on style but just use a scoop of trub and yeast cake into a clean fermenter. Certainly not best practice but quick and easy and I've been happy with the results.

This is what I do. I reuse it twice after the initial pitch, then dump it.
I always build up a new pack/tube to give me a decent initial pitch.
I brew 25 litres only on average once every 3 to 4 weeks, so I see no point in me building up a large yeast library.

 

[smokenmirraz]

I have a couple of lunch boxes full of yeast vials in the fridge going on probably 12+ months old now. I don't drink or brew enough to use them all that often. Occasionally, I'll crack one vial and step it up for a brew each month or so.