Yeast Starter Longevity

[ricardo]

Made up a yeast starter of 560 billion cells on Thursday ready for brew day today. Had a disaster of a day and i am now not able to brew for about 2 weeks. Will this be OK until then in the fridge, it's in an Erlenmeyer flask with tin foil wrapped round the top? Also i guess the viabilty of the yeast will go down, how can i calculate how much of a starter i would need to get it back up to 560 billion

 

[pnorkle]

'fraid I don't have an answer for you, but this happens to be a timely question - I'm pretty much in the same state as you. Made up a starter last weekend for use today, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I've had to give it a miss. Probably won't happen for a week or two.

 

[rehabs_for_quitters]

I have had starters stored in the fridge the same way for a month before use, just warm up to the same temp as wort decant off the spent wort and pitch, or to be safe store in the fridge decant off and pitch into another starter, myself I would go with the first plan as its worked for me many times when I have been in the same situation

 

[TheWiggman]

I suppose the other questions to ask is how critical it is you have 560 billion cells and how do you know you actually have 560 billion cells (as opposed to what a calculator tells you)? Maybe you have 594 billion and it'll drop down to 561 by the time you pitch it? Or you have a high count of unhealthy yeast?
If it's 2 weeks, I can't see it having any noticeable impact on your brew. Too many variables.

 

[ricardo]

I suppose the other questions to ask is how critical it is you have 560 billion cells and how do you know you actually have 560 billion cells (as opposed to what a calculator tells you)? Maybe you have 594 billion and it'll drop down to 561 by the time you pitch it? Or you have a high count of unhealthy yeast?
If it's 2 weeks, I can't see it having any noticeable impact on your brew. Too many variables.

Cheers for the advice, guess i'll just have to go for it. Yeast cell count was done via Mr Malty, not sure how accurate it is but its always worked for me on the past, never had any issue getting down to FG

 

[hoppy2B]

You might want to consider putting a couple of layers of glad wrap and a rubber band or two over the top of your flask just to be a little more secure.

 

[TheWiggman]

Excellent scenario for a test run then.