Making yeast starters and reusing yeast - Discussion

[drsmurto]

The thread 'Making yeast starters and reusing yeast' is locked so that it remains an article rather than a discussion thread.

It has recently been updated to include a top cropping section with pictures

There are now four topics covered in the article:

- Starting Wyeast/liquid yeasts
- Re-culturing yeast from a bottle
- Yeast farming
- Top Cropping

So to enable discussion, allow people to ask questions, i thought i would start a thread.

If you have any questions/comments about the article this is the place for them!

Cheers
DrSmurto

p.s. credit needs to be given to the brewer known on other forums as Butters who showed me how to top crop. There are links at the bottom of the article to other forums/threads which i have used to write this article.

[Tipsy]

My 8yo daughter gave me a can of Coopers Canadian Blonde for Christmas, so rather than sit her down and explain the benefits of AG brewing I gave her a kiss and thought about using it for starters.
Does anyone do this? If so, how do you go with measurements and storage of the open goop?

[emnpaul]

Yeah I did it for a while until I found a cheaper source of LDME, just because dried is easier to handle. I used Home Brand lager for like, $8 per can.

This is what I did: Bring 1.8-2L water to the boil.
Place open can on kitchen scales and adjust to a nice round measurement.
Using 2 desert spoons, spoon out gobs of malt with one and scrape the first spoon intothe saucepan with the second spoon.
Repeat until 200 grams are added to the boil.
Then add 50g dextrose to the boil as well. This will give you roughly 1040 SG.
Scrape remaining beer kit into a sanitised Country Brewer plastic malt tub and refridgerate for later.
Cool and aerate wort, pitch yeast etc, as normal.
Sloitly ruff approach but worked well enough for me.

BTW, my sincerest thanks to you, Dr. Smurto for the yeast culturing/starting thread you have so generously provided.

[Tipsy]

Thanks for that, I will be using that method tonight.

[bullfrog]

My 8yo daughter gave me a can of Coopers Canadian Blonde for Christmas, so rather than sit her down and explain the benefits of AG brewing I gave her a kiss and thought about using it for starters.
Does anyone do this? If so, how do you go with measurements and storage of the open goop?

I'd have brewed it with a kilo of cane sugar at 26 degrees (as per tin instructions) and made her drink the lot. That'd learn her!

...I'm going to be a terrible father, aren't I?

[Tipsy]

...I'm going to be a terrible father, aren't I?

Not at all, in fact I've probably still got a bottle from my early days brewed like that. I might stagger down the hall and force it down her throat all the while telling her it was Bullfrogs idea

[aydanrogers]

I tried to harvest my s05 yeast for the first time the other week. I collected it in one big container, let it settle for 15 mins, poured the milky suspension off into two containers and chilled them over night. Everything was going well, then I poured the beer off, put more boiled cooled water in, shook it up and threw it back in the fridge. Unfortunately it froze so I moved it in the fridge and it thawed out but now there are two layers in the bottom of the bottle and I'm wondering if this is now dead yeast from being frozen. Should I throw these away and start again or will they still be fine?

[drsmurto]

Frozen solid or just a bit on the top?

I'd continue on. Are you planning on splitting these further?

[aydanrogers]

No it was mainly frozen on top. Since I poured most of the beer off the top, shook it up and put it back into the fridge, it took about 3 days to settle and it has formed two obvious layers on the bottom. One layer is slightly darker than the other.

[drsmurto]

I'd still continue on. The two layers may just be some trub that carried over.

[aydanrogers]

Alright cool. I might wash them once more (it will be the third time) and then I can just keep them stored in the fridge till I need them.