Splitting A Wyeast Smack Pack

[Tony]

There has been a lot of discussion and questions asked on the chat, and in PM's to me on how to corectly split a smack pack to get better value for money. I dont believe there is a "corect" way to split a smack pack. I have tried all sorts of different methods ranging from keeping yeast in jam jars form the first batch, to stubbies, to just pitching it all and reusing over and over but non gave me reliable results.

I now follow this simple process and only ever use virgin yeast to brew with. I get 4 batches out of a smack pack so that about $3 in 50 liters........... but if you re pitched you could double or tripple this....... but im not that poor yet so i will stick with virgin yeast!

First up i will give a description of how i get my starters.

When i finnish sparging and the flow stops running........ it still trickles out slowly for half an hout as the wort held by the grain seperates. MOst people throw this out but i let it dribble slowly as the brew boils into a pot and i usually get 2 liters after an hour or so. I either boil this down immediatly in the below sequence, or pour it in a very strong 2 liter plastic bottle (vinigar bottles are best... cordial bottles split) and freeze it untill needed.

Now........ as the 2 liter starter boils, i add a liter or so of water to a 2 liter flask and chuck in 3 x 30ml test tubes.
Link: http://www.proscitech.com.au/cataloguex/online.asp?page=l9
Part number: LS22-30 (about half way down the page)

Heat is the best steraliser you can get as far as im concerned and for long term storage.... you want it clean as you can get it!

I make sure the smack pack is fully swolen and fermented. If its not you gound end up with 30 Ml yeast bungers in the fridge! This pack was 6 months old and took 4 or 5 days to swell right up at room temp. Definatley needs a starter.

I boil the starter down to about 2/3 origional volume and let the flask... covered with a bit of doubled over tin foil, simmer for 10 min. Chill the starter wort in the sink full or cold water and leave the hot water to stand in the flask as you do this. make sure you leave the foil on, this will be your airlock. It lets gas out but stops other stuff getting in.

When the wort is cool, i drain the hot water from the flash through a strainer to catch the test tubes. I then pour the cooled wort into the hot flask.... dont use a funnel, just get good at not spilling it, it takes a bit of practice

I then snip the corner from the swollen smack pack and fill 3 30 ml test tubes and attach the lids......... the rest goes into the starter.

I put the foil cap back on and give it a good swish to airate the wort and ferment it at room temp. i let it go till its done and settles out, tip the starter liquid off the yeast, catching some for a taste test and leaving about 10% of the liquid to swirl the yeast cake with. the taste test is very important.......... NEVER pitch yeast from a starter that tastes sus. It wont taste good but you will know if its infected. If it tastes like weak unhopped beer... a bit fruity ect... its fine, if you go......... on yuck that foul, make another starter. I always keep a backup few packs of dry yeast just in case.

here are the 3 freshly filled tubes (left) and other older ones of varying strains on the right that have settles out in the fridge

some older tubes..... the 1469 is 14 months old and will be slow to start but will fire no problems.

and here is how much room about 5 different yeast strains take up in the fridge....... a lot less than stubbies!

any questions please ask!

cheers

 

[Nick JD]

So you fill up plastic test tubes with the smack pack?

 

[Rodolphe01]

Nice method. Pretty similar to what I do but I use pee sample jars from the chemist and I use a syringe to portion it out into the containers. I have found (without any real problem though) that the pee sample jars are way too big with mostly head space in the container, I recently acquired some ~30ml glass vials from work which I will use from now on. I also don't activate the smack pack and I make up fresh 1.040 wort from LDME for the starters as I am only a partial BIAB man and can't really spare the 'real' wort for starters

I usually split the pack 3 ways, I have done it down as far as 5 ways, but it gets to a point where you need so much time and wort to grow the starter up you might as well just buy a new yeast!

 

[bjay]

Thanks for that Tony good reading
Thats pretty much what i do already
even though i just started yeast ranching and making starters with liquid yeasts

cheers
bjay

 

[Nick JD]

Would it not be easier in the long run to just make a "starter" out of the whole pack, and bottle enough individual yeast doses so you don't have make any more starters?

 

[schooey]

No, because if your starter gets infected for some reason or other, you haven't lost the whole smack pack.

 

[Nick JD]

No, because if your starter gets infected for some reason or other, you haven't lost the whole smack pack.

If you're worried about infected starters (Never had one myself, so I don't consider it an issue) shouldn't you be trying to eliminate having to make one for each brew?

 

[schooey]

So how do you pitch enough viable yeast for 50 litres of Pilsener? Buy 5 or 6 smack packs?

 

[Nick JD]

So how do you pitch enough viable yeast for 50 litres of Pilsener? Buy 5 or 6 smack packs?

Brew a 25L pilsner, drink it, bottle the trub and pitch it.

 

[schooey]

Each to their own I guess...

But if you have a smack pack that's 6 months old and you're worried about viability, you'd want to make a starter. So if it does prove to be viable, you still have cultures. If you pitch the whole pack, you don't. It's also handy to swap with other brewers at meets/brewdays or if you want to go down the road of blending yeasts one day

 

[manticle]

Would it not be easier in the long run to just make a "starter" out of the whole pack, and bottle enough individual yeast doses so you don't have make any more starters?

I think you missed the point. Yes you can re-use yeast the way you describe - I do it all the time.

However Tony's 2 main points were -

1. He uses Virgin yeast

2. He uses small vessels which take up less room.

There's a million ways to get the most out of your yeast. One works for you. One works for me. One works for Tony.

 

[Wolfy]

Would it not be easier in the long run to just make a "starter" out of the whole pack, and bottle enough individual yeast doses so you don't have make any more starters?

I can only imagine this working if you were going to use all the yeast within a week or two, after that time the yeast viability drops drastically and you'll need to make a starter anyway. The two main advantage of the Tony's method are as per manticle's suggestion.

 

[NickB]

I use a similar method but split each smack-pack into 10 small palstic vials (50mls I think). Each ends up with maybe 5-10ml yeast (at a guess). I just use a syringe to split evenly between the tubes, then when I need to, fire up a 100ml starter and step up to whatever size I need. Really makes it cost effective.

When I've reached the last vial, I'll make up a starter, then siphon off the wort and split into another 10 vials. Each strain can last for years this way. TidalPete showed me this method, and I think, as a certified Tight-Arse™, it works a treat!

Cheers

 

[Rodolphe01]

NickB I hear thee saving coin on the yeast, and i've only fairly recently started using liquid for the cost of it, but splitting it down so much don't you find you are making more starters than beer?

Maybe I am doing it wrong, but how long does it take you to step up a tenth of a smack-pack? It just recently took me ~2 weeks to step up a lager yeast, it was about 9 months old and was about 1 5th of a smack-pack though.

If you have a yeast strain you use all the time for your house beer etc, splitting it 10 ways would make more sense to me as you just contsantly have a starter on the go.

Persoanly I also see little value for myself splitting more than 3 ways, I only make beer ~ once a month, so splitting a pack 3 ways, if I make 4 different beers in a year I will have 2 years worth of culture... assuming I only want to use the same yeasts!

Maybe we need a tight arse brewers yeast exchange thread... how well would one of those plastic test tubes go in the post without ice etc...? I reckon it'd pull up OK, at worst slow to start.

 

[Benniee]

I agree that as Tony said there is no real "correct" way of splitting a pack. I believe that there are a couple of things to keep in mind whatever method you use.

The first is to be as clean and sanitary as you can. Tony mentions that he splits up his packs across some test tubes - if I were using this method what I'd do is place a small amount of water in the test tubes and then put them in a pressure cooker or autoclave for around 20 mins before I used them - allowing them to cool first of course. This would come close to sterilising them.

The second would be the viability/mutation of yeast stored as a slurry at "fridge" temperatures for any great length of time. I don't have a lab where I could analyse this first hand so I'm simply going off what the yeast production companies recommend (Wyeast and White Labs). Viability is probably easy to live with, but mutations could/would change the characteristics of the yeast. Again, I'm simply repeating info that I have heard - not going off my personal experiences.

A draw back I can see with Tony's method of starting from 1st generation yeast each pitch is he will not gain any advantage from a 3rd or 4th gen pitch that some other brewers talk about. In typing this I'm actually spouting a bit of 2nd hand information as I'm running through the process of re-pitching some lager yeast across a number of generations. I'm just getting to the 3rd generation this weekend so I'll reserve my personal judgement for a little while longer yet. I will say that sampling the 2nd generation beer at the end of fermentation was promising.

But to get back on topic - when I crack a new Wyeast pack I pour a small amount off into a "sterilised" test tube as I mentioned above, then the rest goes into a starter. I then innoculate a number of slants from that test tube (usually a few for myself and a few to swap with other brewers). Once I'm happy with the slants I make a smaller starter from the tube of slurry, then step up to my required volume.

There are a stack of threads on making slants so I won't go on about it here too much - other than to say that for long term storage I have found them the best method for me.

Either way - good thread, gets us thinking/talking(typing) about our own methods.

Benniee

 

[aussiechucka]

Cheers for this method Tony. There are many ways out there but none have been so easily explained. I like the idea of not taking up too much fridge space as not to upset SWMBO. I did my first Smack pack split but will be giving your idea a go too as less space. At the moment I only have stubbies hoarding space in the fridge. Two I made from splitting and the third from the trub according to Bribie. Anyway see how I go at getting some of those tubes. Looks like a great idea for my next brew.
Cheers
Chucka :beerbang:

 

[Screwtop]

Great info and informative pics Tony, thanks

I make sure the smack pack is fully swolen and fermented. If its not you gound end up with 30 Ml yeast bungers in the fridge! This pack was 6 months old and took 4 or 5 days to swell right up at room temp. Definatley needs a starter.

Above reinforces a very important point.

I boil the starter down to about 2/3 origional volume and let the flask... covered with a bit of doubled over tin foil, simmer for 10 min.

I boil mine down until reaching a gravity around 1.035 - 1.040. Boil time depends on the gravity of the runnings from the mash tun and can vary.

the taste test is very important.......... NEVER pitch yeast from a starter that tastes sus. It wont taste good but you will know if its infected. If it tastes like weak unhopped beer... a bit fruity ect... its fine, if you go......... on yuck that foul, make another starter.

Again, a very important point.

Great stuff,

Screwy

 

[Fourstar]

I boil mine down until reaching a gravity around 1.035 - 1.040. Boil time depends on the gravity of the runnings from the mash tun and can vary.

Another thing to note with this, you should not go about making high gravity starters. 1.040 should be your upper limits. i usually shoot for around 1.030-35 (slightly less than 100g DME to 1L of water for those using extract).

Remeber, we are trying to make healthy yeast at this point, not trying to make beer. unfortunatly high gravity worts are not the ideal place for growth, neither is adding hops. Dont do it, its not beer we want, its yeast.


Great infornative post Tony for those wanting to split up yeast and a process i used todo before beginning slanting. Personally i like doing slants, but to each their own. :icon_cheers:

 

[Screwtop]

Another thing to note with this, you should not go about making high gravity starters. 1.040 should be your upper limits. i usually shoot for around 1.030-35 (slightly less than 100g DME to 1L of water for those using extract).

Remeber, we are trying to make healthy yeast at this point, not trying to make beer. unfortunatly high gravity worts are not the ideal place for growth, neither is adding hops. Dont do it, its not beer we want, its yeast.


Great infornative post Tony for those wanting to split up yeast and a process i used todo before beginning slanting. Personally i like doing slants, but to each their own. :icon_cheers:

A good point. I have made 100g/1L wort for a starter and and ended up with wort of G 1.050 after a 10 min boil on the cooktop, not a raging boil, just a low boil, a trap for new players. Check the gravity of your starter wort!!!

Screwy

 

[Phoney]

This is pretty close to what I do;

1. Pour liquid yeast out of the packet and into a 500ml starter. (ie: 500ml cooled boiled water and 50g of LDME)

2. Sit that on a stir plate 48+hrs until the krausen begins to subside

3. Pour into sanitized urine sample jars. Anywhere from 4 to 10, depending on how much I think im going to be using that yeast. I buy the jars at the pharmacy for .80 cents each

4. Label the jars with the yeast strain and the date and then stack them up at the back of the fridge

5. Pitch the rest of the starter into my wort.

Then the next time I want to brew using that same yeast again, I pull out 1 or 2 of the jars out of the fridge (if they're getting old I use 2), shake them like hell to rouse up the yeast cake, then pour it into a new 500ml starter, give it at least 48 hours to cultivate, then pitch!

I have made starters out of yeast that have been sitting in my fridge for 18 months and haven't had an issue!
Cheers.