Keeping Created Yeast Starters

[Jazzafish]

After reading a few forums on making yeast starters, I have come over a couple of choices in storing them.

What I have been doing is as I read in a forum or two:

Stepping up until I have a few litres of starter.
Ferment out until the krausen has dropped and a white sedimate is visable.
Then I shake up the bottle, mixing it all up, and transfer the mixture into a few smaller bottles for storage.
I store the yeast in my keg fridge at 4 - 5*C.

Now after reading some newer forums, I read another way to do it is pour out the wort above the sedimate and top it up with sterile water.

First of all, how long will the yeast be good in the method I have been using?
Will it last longer if I used sterile water?
What are the pros and cons of both methods?

Cheers,
Jarrad

 

[Aaron]

I have only just started getting rid of the wort and adding sterile water so I can't tell you how long that will last. However I have been storing similar to the way you did it.

I would rake a sample jar worth of the starter and leave it in the fridge. I have used these 2-3 months after being put into stoorage and they fired up and went to work very quickly, faster than a smack pack anyway.

From everything I have read it is better to store them under water which is what I have started doing. If you want to get really serious you could get into plating to help ensure a more pure strain. That is too much work for me.

 

[roach]

I am in the Aaron camp here. I also cant be bothered plating and so I keep the yeast stored under sterile water in a test tube. Just building up a starter of 2007(American Pilsen) atm that is 6 months old and is going strong.

Chiller wrote an excellent post describing the sterile water method late last year, and IIRC he has fired up yeast that is 18 months old. Of course you need good sanitation procedures, and I would recommend tasting the starter b4 pitching.

 

[roach]

I am in the Aaron camp here. I also cant be bothered plating and so I keep the yeast stored under sterile water in a test tube. Just building up a starter of 2007(American Pilsen) atm that is 6 months old and is going strong.

Chiller wrote an excellent post describing the sterile water method late last year, and IIRC he has fired up yeast that is 18 months old. Of course you need good sanitation procedures, and I would recommend tasting the starter b4 pitching.

[post="77750"][/post]​

Hereis Chillers original post