Yeast Starter And Splitting Yeast Packs

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Tony

Quality over Quantity
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After many many questions and PM's on this topic, i have put together an article on how i make a yeast starter and split a wyeast pack.

Its not the be all to end all........ its just a pictorial of how i do it.

I hope it helps some and if anyone has any queations... dont be afraid to ask.

cheers

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showarticle=192
 
Nice work Tony, a few quick questions, does 1 wyeast pack do 3 starters? (by splitting). The one and only starter I made was a 600ml only with Coopers Pale yeast. Worked well. Is there any minimum starter size you use with the vials? Also you mention pouring the liquid off before pitching. Is that the main starter you are talking about or the vials into the starter?

Thanks. :beerbang:
 
Very nice, do those vials come sterilised from the supplier for the first use? You only boil them for the second use onwards?
 
Nice work Tony, a few quick questions, does 1 wyeast pack do 3 starters? (by splitting). The one and only starter I made was a 600ml only with Coopers Pale yeast. Worked well. Is there any minimum starter size you use with the vials? Also you mention pouring the liquid off before pitching. Is that the main starter you are talking about or the vials into the starter?

Thanks. :beerbang:

yes i get 3 startes from the one pack. THe origional starter seen plus i repeat the sterter process but add a single vial to the cooled wort and off it goes.

I find one vial in a 2 liter starter is good enough to ferment 50 liters..... although if the yeast is old and a bit slow i will tip off the liquid and vive it a 2nd ferment in the starter to make sure its really healthy before pitching

It really comes down to the brewer. I can show you how i do it but you have to be the one to learn to watch the yeast and get to know whats a strong starter and whats a weak starter... usually determined by how fast it finnishes dependant on temperature and the yeast.

I can give you info but not experience unfortuantely...... you need to get that by having a go at it. :)

I tip the liquid of the completed starter once the yeast has settled out....... if its fermented warm you dont want to tip fruity starter liquid into the brew.... you will taste it.

The entire vial goes in the starter... liquid and all.

Make sure you shake up the vial first as the yeast tends to stick in the bottom over time.


Very nice, do those vials come sterilised from the supplier for the first use? You only boil them for the second use onwards?

No idea!
Its not much work to boil them.... your not that hard up for time are ya :p

I wouldnt use them without steralising them somehow first.

cheers
 
Tony,
Thanks mate I've been wondering about how to do this but didn't know how. Great article cheers! :beer:
 
Excellent article Tony, I've always add the whole smack pack in the starter, built it up and vialed off at the end of propergation prior to pitching. Have never thought of vialing off straight out of the smack pack before building the starter. Will have to give it a go with a couple of smack packs I have in the fridge.
 
Nice one Tony! B)
There's a few different ways to deal with a new smackpak, this is one way to get much more value out of it simply and cheaply. For seasonal/ PC strains I'd recommend this sort of thing as a minimum, if you're serious and prepared to put in a small amount of effort then this will be well worth doing.

WRT fermented starter wort in my experience it can be very disconcerting to actually taste the stuff as it is usually pretty naff, however your experiences will have to guide you- if it tastes really wrong then its probably best to bin it, but remember it started as a fairly weak wort and has probably been oxygenated to buggery during the ferment too, so sadly it just isn't going to taste like Torpedo or TTL, it should be thin, bland and miserable. Measuring the SG will also give you some confidence that it hasn't hyperattenuated, a really low SG would be a reasonable indication of infection, say <1.008 would be suspect, I've never had one much lower than that.
 
Nice one Tony! B)
There's a few different ways to deal with a new smackpak, this is one way to get much more value out of it simply and cheaply. For seasonal/ PC strains I'd recommend this sort of thing as a minimum, if you're serious and prepared to put in a small amount of effort then this will be well worth doing.

WRT fermented starter wort in my experience it can be very disconcerting to actually taste the stuff as it is usually pretty naff, however your experiences will have to guide you- if it tastes really wrong then its probably best to bin it, but remember it started as a fairly weak wort and has probably been oxygenated to buggery during the ferment too, so sadly it just isn't going to taste like Torpedo or TTL, it should be thin, bland and miserable. Measuring the SG will also give you some confidence that it hasn't hyperattenuated, a really low SG would be a reasonable indication of infection, say <1.008 would be suspect, I've never had one much lower than that.


Happy new year Ralph! :beer:
 
Thanks Tony, info much appreciated. Might get a pack and give it a crack.
At the moment I am just reusing slurry from previous batches. This is the next step.
Cheers. :beerbang:
 
Nice article. The info on smacking the pack and maybe waiting days is great.

No starsan on the smackpack? I'm always paranoid about that as I hate to think how many greasy, tuna sandwiches and not-washing-hands-after-peeing people have had their mits on that pack between Oregon and here!
 
This is my preferred way of saving yeast. I seem to have a wild yeast problem in my area, so find yeast rinsing too unreliable

I no longer smack the packs and I split the into 4 30ml vials

I boil up the wort in the flask with my stir bar
 
Great article, I'm just looking into getting started with liquid yeast - thanks!

Any suggestions on where I could get one of those 2L flasks?
 
Nice article. The info on smacking the pack and maybe waiting days is great.

No starsan on the smackpack? I'm always paranoid about that as I hate to think how many greasy, tuna sandwiches and not-washing-hands-after-peeing people have had their mits on that pack between Oregon and here!

I like to keep a small sprayer of metho handy for splitting smackpacks. Spray everything --- hands, scissors, smackpack, anything that comes in contact & split the pack with a sterilised syringe (50c) from the chemist.
My preferred method is not to smack the pack before splitting. Have split into as many as eight tubes with success. Use the nutrient pack in the boil next brewday.
Very informative thread Tony. :icon_cheers:

TP
 
Great article. Lots of useful tips and very easily understood. I'll be giving this a shot when I brew next.

Question regarding vial storage. Are they ok to store in my kitchen fridge, or does it need to be in a more sterile environment? Just concerned about various contaminents which may be lurking in my fridge (sourdough starter for one).

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

:beer:

JD.
 
Great article. Lots of useful tips and very easily understood. I'll be giving this a shot when I brew next.

Question regarding vial storage. Are they ok to store in my kitchen fridge, or does it need to be in a more sterile environment? Just concerned about various contaminents which may be lurking in my fridge (sourdough starter for one).

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

:beer:

JD.

I store in the food fridge, but i have a bottom shelf yeast zone only.
I would be hesitant about storing with a sour dough culture, just asking for trouble IMO.
 
Dedicated bottom shelf in the kitchen fridge. All your tubes\vials should be tightly sealed & impervious to contaminents but why tempt fate? Put your sourdough culture somewhere else.

TP
 
Awesome article Tony!! I'm planning to start to practice reculturing yeast from various sources so I can get it right when I want to use some for an actual brew.

How many ml are those vials? I'm trying to salvage those tiny glass bottles from Masterfoods spices (cinnamon etc) as they seem to be about the right size for tubes/vials. Probably going to use softdrink bottles to start out with until I can get some funky looking flasks, vials and a white labcoat.

Cheers,
Shred.
 
Nice article. The info on smacking the pack and maybe waiting days is great.

No starsan on the smackpack? I'm always paranoid about that as I hate to think how many greasy, tuna sandwiches and not-washing-hands-after-peeing people have had their mits on that pack between Oregon and here!

A squirt with Starsan cant hurt!


Great article. Lots of useful tips and very easily understood. I'll be giving this a shot when I brew next.

Question regarding vial storage. Are they ok to store in my kitchen fridge, or does it need to be in a more sterile environment? Just concerned about various contaminents which may be lurking in my fridge (sourdough starter for one).

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

:beer:

JD.

Cant see why not..... just hit em with a bit of starsan before you open them... should be fine.


Awesome article Tony!! I'm planning to start to practice reculturing yeast from various sources so I can get it right when I want to use some for an actual brew.

How many ml are those vials? I'm trying to salvage those tiny glass bottles from Masterfoods spices (cinnamon etc) as they seem to be about the right size for tubes/vials. Probably going to use softdrink bottles to start out with until I can get some funky looking flasks, vials and a white labcoat.

Cheers,
Shred.

Mate... just order the vials. They are perfectly suited to the task.

You can boil them without them distorting, they wont go BANG and send shards of glass flying if the yeast in the tube decides to ferment for some reason and i wouldnt trust the seal on the spice jars.... they arent made to seal they way we need for yeast storage.

I put a link to the flasks (30ml) in the article but here it is again.

http://www.proscitech.com.au/cataloguex/online.asp?page=l9

Product code: LS22-30 Sample tubes, PP, conical bottom free-standing, sterile, 30mL AUD16.00 /pk/50 (about half way down the page)

$16 for 50..... why would you use anything else?

cheers
 
I use urine sample jars (80 cents ea from the chemist). You cant boil them for more than about 10 seconds without going out of shape, but ive never had a problem with just sanitizing them with starsan after they come out of the dishwasher...
 
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