Yeast Farming

[TidalPete]

:icon_offtopic:

And I am looking for a tube of Belgian Witbeir Yeast 3944 (First or second generation).
Am not in the Yeast Slant Library yet but have tubes of quite a few yeasts on hand to swap.

TP :beer:

 

[cdbrown]

Read through the thread and just want to make sure I will be doing this right. Now I've had success in stepping up a smack pack and using six stubbies to be starters for future brews. What I haven't done is reuse yeast.

On a few brews, after pouring off as much beer as I can I've tipped in about 1L of water, swirled it around and then tipped about 1L of the slurry into a PET, put lid on and then stored it in the keg fridge at 2C. Been in there for a couple of months. I'd like to put this lot into stubbies for starters, so when it's time to use it I just need to step it up a few times.

1. Do I need to bring the temperature up to say 18C for ales, 12C for lagers and then tip off the liquid?
2. Pour the equivalent amount of liquid back in, shake and then put back in the fridge to settle? Guess the sterlised water needs to be the same temp?
3. Repeat 1 and then 2? Do I just keep going until the liquid on top is clear and then shake and pour the slurry into stubbies?

Cheers
-cdbrown

 

[buttersd70]

no need to bring it up to temp, cd. Just cool the boiled water to the same current fridge temp.

 

[cdbrown]

Cool - will cool. Time to clean and sanitize those berri apple juice plastic bottles, fill them up with cooled boiled water and chill in the fridge for some yeast washing.

 

[Alby]

Sorry to drag this one out again..but Im confused.

I dont think Ive read enough Dr Seuss books to follow the 'this jar', 'that jar' instructions and agree with others that jar A, jar B etc might make this easier to follow. Why do I need three jars? Each time I add water and shake it up, then I let it settle and dispose of the water on top of the jar and then refill again? Or am I keeping the water that I tip off? aaaaahh :huh: :huh: :huh:

Wash Yeast? Which Yeast? Wyeast? This brain has much strain. I tried to refrain from posting again. It is clear that I am going insane and so without further ado its time that I say adieu and go and drink the drink of grain. (again) :icon_cheers:

 

[gava]

Sorry to drag this one out again..but Im confused.

I dont think Ive read enough Dr Seuss books to follow the 'this jar', 'that jar' instructions and agree with others that jar A, jar B etc might make this easier to follow. Why do I need three jars? Each time I add water and shake it up, then I let it settle and dispose of the water on top of the jar and then refill again? Or am I keeping the water that I tip off? aaaaahh :huh: :huh: :huh:

Wash Yeast? Which Yeast? Wyeast? This brain has much strain. I tried to refrain from posting again. It is clear that I am going insane and so without further ado its time that I say adieu and go and drink the drink of grain. (again) :icon_cheers:

I also got a little confused with the post.. I've re-read a few times and think I understand but I agree with the Jar-A etc..

I also dont understand what they say to step it up to 50ml 100ml 500ml.. how's this done and why? (i tried a search but couldn't find much)

 

[technocat]

I also got a little confused with the post.. I've re-read a few times and think I understand but I agree with the Jar-A etc..

I also dont understand what they say to step it up to 50ml 100ml 500ml.. how's this done and why? (i tried a search but couldn't find much)

Dr Smurto wrote a pretty good essay on this very topic on another site he may have repeated it here. His instructions were fairly concise with a good understanding.

 

[jonocarroll]

Sorry to drag this one out again..but Im confused.

I dont think Ive read enough Dr Seuss books to follow the 'this jar', 'that jar' instructions and agree with others that jar A, jar B etc might make this easier to follow. Why do I need three jars? Each time I add water and shake it up, then I let it settle and dispose of the water on top of the jar and then refill again? Or am I keeping the water that I tip off? aaaaahh :huh: :huh: :huh:

I agree, it's confusing the way it's written there. Part of it is that you get three layers - trub, yeast, liquid; from bottom to top. Ideally you just want the yeast. I've started doing this with my yeasts to save money on smack-packs - it may not be the 'correct way' but it's worked for me.

0. Boil up some water and pour into glass longnecks, seal with alfoil and allow to cool (anytime before you need them).
1. Bottle/keg as much as you can from the fermenter.
2. Give whatever's left a good swirl to get it all suspended in the remaining liquid (usually a litre or so) = slurry.
3. Sanitise 3 coopers PET bottles.
4. Collect slurry in PET bottles, about 2/3 full.
5. Fill with cooled water (from 0.) to 4/5 full, seal, shake like a british nanny.
6. Place PET bottles in fridge, upright for a couple of days. You will get firmly packed whitish sludge under brownish liquid.
7. Repeat 0.
8. Pour off liquid from PET bottles.
9. Repeat 5, 6, 7, 8.
10. You should end up with firmly packed white sludge under clear liquid.

Caveats;

- This doesn't separate the trub in any specific way. I have no real issue with this. It gets washed pretty well.
- If you don't have enough fluid in the fermenter to swirl properly, add some cooled boiled water.
- You may need to wash more than twice, just repeat 7, 8, 9.
- YMMV.

To get it going again, warm the yeast from fridge temps to ambient temps, tip off most of the liquid, then add to a starter the way you would a Wyeast Propagator smack-pack.

Comments or alterations welcome.

 

[TidalPete]

Adding too much wort to the small amount of yeast in a starter in one go will make the yeasties overfed & lazy so that they will not multiply at the desired rate. Stepping up your starters by increments of 10 solves this problem & allows for good yeast multiplication.

I got a little confused with Chiller's instructions when I first read them years ago & came up with this ---- View attachment Yeast_Farming_etc.doc

TP

 

[Wardhog]

Wash Yeast? Which Yeast? Wyeast? This brain has much strain. I tried to refrain from posting again. It is clear that I am going insane and so without further ado its time that I say adieu and go and drink the drink of grain. (again) :icon_cheers:

This deserves recognition. Alby, know that someone out there liked it.


Can you do a pale ale recipe in haiku form? I'd brew it.

 

[drsmurto]

Dr Smurto wrote a pretty good essay on this very topic on another site he may have repeated it here. His instructions were fairly concise with a good understanding.

I use Chiller's methodology and linked this article so people knew it wasnt my idea. I also linked Batz's starting wyeast thread as i read this several times before using my 1st pack of wyeast. I still have them both bookmarked for easy reference!

I just changed the wording to help out some people who were having difficulty getting there heads around the whole yeast washing/farming malarky.

 

[gava]

I use Chiller's methodology and linked this article so people knew it wasnt my idea. I also linked Batz's starting wyeast thread as i read this several times before using my 1st pack of wyeast. I still have them both bookmarked for easy reference!

I just changed the wording to help out some people who were having difficulty getting there heads around the whole yeast washing/farming malarky.

I'll be interested in reading it...

 

[apd]

0. Boil up some water and pour into glass longnecks, seal with alfoil and allow to cool (anytime before you need them).
1. Bottle/keg as much as you can from the fermenter.
2. Give whatever's left a good swirl to get it all suspended in the remaining liquid (usually a litre or so) = slurry.
...

Counting from zero. You a programmer perchance?

 

[gava]

Counting from zero. You a programmer perchance?

I was thinking the same thing..

 

[jonocarroll]

Counting from zero. You a programmer perchance?

Yes, of sorts. Nonetheless, it was mainly; (a) I had already entered a few numbers and couldn't be bothered shifting them all up by one, and (b) This step doesn't actually need to be done at the time, in fact I do this hours ahead and let it cool the slow way. If you start at 0 when you want to start bottling, you'll have yeast sitting around while you wait/force water to cool.

Method in my madness...

 

[chuck_d]

Just read through pretty much this whole thread. I picked up some reading material for myself, thanks for all the links. I don't think I saw this page posted though, so I thought I'd link it for you all. Sorry if it's a repost.

Guide to Yeast Culturing by MB Raines

I base most of my math for calculating starter size and propogation growth factors on the information in this site.

 

[chadjaja]

I too gave this a go today. After racking my APA I emptied out the beer I could and swirled the slurry with 500ml's of the water I boiled and bottled last night. Did the jar, rinse, top up, cool thing 4 times and then split the lot between 5 50ml tubes... All are in the fridge now and every day for a little while I'll check so see how clear the top liquid is and then rinse them off a little if required. There was a stack of liquid left over and the original post on page one said 3X vials. Any reason why I have to waste the rest of the glass jar with yeast in suspension? I filled 5 vials anyway as they are only 50ml ones anyway.

I think I did everything I should of.

Hopefully all five tubes have a layer of white yeast in 24 hours. Better to practice this stuff with the cheaper saf 05 yeast first up just for something news to try with my brewing.

Does the fact that fermentation hadn't fully finished factor in at all seeing I did it at the racking stage??

When I move onto liquid yeasts I want this all down pat to save money on each brew.

 

[raven19]

Does the fact that fermentation hadn't fully finished factor in at all seeing I did it at the racking stage??

If you are washing the yeast correctly, then most/all of the fermentable sugars have been washed away - hence it wont be a factor as such.

 

[chadjaja]

If you are washing the yeast correctly, then most/all of the fermentable sugars have been washed away - hence it wont be a factor as such.

Quote the Raven

Thanks.

 

[chadjaja]

Geez I know its only been in the vial for 24 hours but there isn't much white yeast at the bottom of the tube. Just a thin layering and damn near liquid up top.