So I made a hefewiezen recipe last night that I converted down from a 6 gallon batch to make 2 gallons. The only change I made was I ended up using dry yeast instead of the wet the recipe called for.
I had the vial of wet yeast in my hand and just couldn't justify spending $7 on something I was going to end up throwing half of in the garbage. The dry yeast I can at least fold down the bag and store in the fridge.
Am I correct to assume that once I crack the seal on a wet yeast container that there is no storing it for future use? Does it have any shelf life once opened if I use half and put the rest back in the fridge? Using dry isn't a huge deal I guess, but the selection I can get at my local homebrew shop of wet yeast blows their dry selection out of the water.
Post #2 made 11 years ago
So doing some research into this I found this blog post about splitting the yeast into multiple starters:
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id45.html
Looks promising but I don't think I'd take it as far as splitting it 12 ways. Maybe the next time I buy a vial I'll pitch 1/3 of it and then make a starter with the rest that I can bottle and store. I just need to figure out a way to predict the yeast count of the made starters so I don't hugely over-pitch when I use them.
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id45.html
Looks promising but I don't think I'd take it as far as splitting it 12 ways. Maybe the next time I buy a vial I'll pitch 1/3 of it and then make a starter with the rest that I can bottle and store. I just need to figure out a way to predict the yeast count of the made starters so I don't hugely over-pitch when I use them.
Post #3 made 11 years ago
Koda,
I would have pitched the whole vile into the 2 gallon batch and used that as a starter for your next batch or to save the cake for your next few wheat beers.
I would have pitched the whole vile into the 2 gallon batch and used that as a starter for your next batch or to save the cake for your next few wheat beers.
Cube:
fermenter: Sourdough Spelt Ale, Classic Lambic, Oud Brune, Barrel Aged Belgian Dubbel
Kegs: Bob's Black IPA, Blanc Blond, Soda...
to be brewed:
fermenter: Sourdough Spelt Ale, Classic Lambic, Oud Brune, Barrel Aged Belgian Dubbel
Kegs: Bob's Black IPA, Blanc Blond, Soda...
to be brewed:
Post #4 made 11 years ago
shibolet wrote:Koda,
I would have pitched the whole vile into the 2 gallon batch and used that as a starter for your next batch or to save the cake for your next few wheat beers.
Interesting thought. I'm a little concerned that pitching the whole vial into 2 gallons might be a little excessive. the vials are designed to be pitch-able up to 6 gallons. Does dropping the whole thing put me into the territory where I might get negative effects from over-pitching?
I found some other reports on different forums of people pitching part of the vial and then keeping the rest in a mason jar of preboiled water in the fridge. Apparently this hibernates the yeast for a few months and then you can kick start it in a starter wort a day or two before pitching.
I think next time I do this I'll try both; pitch half the vial into my 2 gallon batch, and then harvest some back out of my primary like you suggest. Then the other half of the vial I'll store in the fridge and see how that works out as well.
This is probably one of those thing I'll just have to play with and find something I like.
Last edited by Koda on 25 Mar 2014, 01:37, edited 1 time in total.
Post #5 made 11 years ago
I've pitched a full vial into a batch then topped up the vial to the half way mark with cooled boiled water before throwing it back in the fridge. I've then used these "dregs" to make slants.
Not exactly the same as your problem but if you are careful and open then pitch in a draft free area there is no reason you couldn't get away with it. People wash/rinse yeast successfully all the time and consider the risk of an infection low enough to keep doing it so pitching 1/2 a vial should pose no problems.
Yeasty
Not exactly the same as your problem but if you are careful and open then pitch in a draft free area there is no reason you couldn't get away with it. People wash/rinse yeast successfully all the time and consider the risk of an infection low enough to keep doing it so pitching 1/2 a vial should pose no problems.
Yeasty
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Post #6 made 11 years ago
Hi Koda, weirdly enough, I was just reading: http://blog.bracio.com/2012/09/splittin ... packs.html
which is a pretty simple method for splitting Wyeast smack packs.
I'm pretty much a yeast newbie having only tried rinsing yeast once, but I believe the advantage of splitting a liquid yeast straight from the pack, as opposed to rinsing it after a fermentation or pitching on top of a yeast cake is that you are getting the yeast in it's pure form. Once you have made a beer on it, the yeast flavours, etc. will actually change, so on say your 1st, second or 5th re-use, even if you made exactly the same beer every time you may get different results...
which is a pretty simple method for splitting Wyeast smack packs.
I'm pretty much a yeast newbie having only tried rinsing yeast once, but I believe the advantage of splitting a liquid yeast straight from the pack, as opposed to rinsing it after a fermentation or pitching on top of a yeast cake is that you are getting the yeast in it's pure form. Once you have made a beer on it, the yeast flavours, etc. will actually change, so on say your 1st, second or 5th re-use, even if you made exactly the same beer every time you may get different results...
