Liquid Yeast

[mobydick]

now that's value!

[Trough Lolly]

Yep, and you can use the best liquid yeast available and do it cheaply...
Cheers,
TL

[mobydick]

Made a 6 way split yesterday from a Wyeast smack pack of London Ale. Using the method above. Didn't get a krausen in my 2 litre bottle, but it was active (I could see it churning and it was giving off gas)

Two of the 'children' went immediately into two brews. Pitched at 28 degrees, which I know is a bit warm, but I've gotten away with it with Safale before.

It's now about 16 hours later, and little happening. Condensation on the lid of both fermentors, but no bubbling. Temp has dropped to about 19 degrees.

First time using Wyeast, and first time using a six way split. Is it just a matter of time?

[lethaldog]

It pays to make a seperate starter from your splits but it should still be fine if you havent, dont be to concerned if it takes a little while to start

[mobydick]

Thanks Lethal. Whilst I'm sitting here waiting for re-assurances one of them has just started bubbling. It has about a 2 hour start on the other one, so hopefully it's not far off either.

[mobydick]

Just as an update, the split was a mild success. Split 6 ways and two of the splits added to brews straight away. One took off well. The other took off quickly, developed a krausen, but dissipated within 24 hours.

I took one of my stubbies of yeast from the fridge, made a starter, and pitched again.

Both tubs have been fermenting strongly for a week now. Still blowing bubbles and fermenting down to 16 degrees! Keen to taste the results of using my first liquid yeast. (Both steam beers)

[Ross]

Thanks for al the info

My HBS only sells whitelabs yeast can you do the same with it as you can with the smack pack.

Also how long will they last in the stubby

Thanks Guys

If you are using whitelabs yeast, don't bother making a starter & splitting into 6 bottles - just simply pour off a sixth into a starter & build up from there. This way you have only 1 to store, which takes up far less space in the fridge & its kept in the original sterile bottle. I do something similar with wyeast - I bought some test tubes & a testube holder (just a few dollars) & I simply split the unsmacked pack into half a dozen test tubes.
i find this much easier than having stubbies of fermented wort everywhere - cheap, clean & compact...

Cheers Ross

[warra48]

If you are using whitelabs yeast, don't bother making a starter & splitting into 6 bottles - just simply pour off a sixth into a starter & build up from there.

Cheers Ross

Hi Ross,
Do you just pour a sixth into the full starter, i.e. 100 gr malt and 1 litre of water, or do you scale it down?

Thanks
Robert

[rohanbutler]

Yes, you must use malt (strictly speaking it's best to create your starters with a portion of wort that is as close as possible to the wort you will be pitching into, but all-malt is generally close enough).

As for using it right away, you can. Just wait for your starter to ferment out, split it into your six stubbies, then either pitch the entirety of one of your stubbies or wait until the yeast flocculate, pour off the "beer" and pitch only the slurry. You will have a longer lag time than if you create a starter and pitch it at high krausen, but it should work OK.

Sorry to drag this quite old topic out of the cellar but a couple of questions before I go ahead and buy a couple of liquid yeasts.

Firstly I get the point of using malt, but I live a little too far from my nearest home brew shop, I noticed tonight that the local supermarket sell 'coopers light dry malt' I'm assuming this stuff is just ldme in a fancy box and thussly will be fine to feed the yeast with?

Secondly do the smack packs need to be refridgereated, does that rule out internet purchasing from grain and grape?

Thirdly it was mentioned that from the stubby starter you should poor off the 'beer' or solution and pitch only the slurry at the bottom.

THanks

Rohan

[Kevnlis]

Yes the Coopers box of LDME is exactly what you need, the liquid yeasts do need to be stored at around 4C but ordering them on-line is no problem because the suppliers will package them up with an ice pack for you.

[rwh]

Thirdly it was mentioned that from the stubby starter you should poor off the 'beer' or solution and pitch only the slurry at the bottom.

Is that a question?

[rohanbutler]

Thirdly it was mentioned that from the stubby starter you should poor off the 'beer' or solution and pitch only the slurry at the bottom.

Is that a question?

Yes sorry RWH, it was late. Have I got the process right? Poor of the solution in the stubby and pitch the slurry at the bottom? also if so should I be making this slurry into a starter, in a similar process as the starter made for the dry yeast pakcet?

[rwh]

Have I got the process right? Poor of the solution in the stubby and pitch the slurry at the bottom?

Yes that is correct. The idea here is that you want to influence the flavour of your beer as little as possible; the "beer" on top of your yeast culture doesn't taste that great, so it's best not to pour it into your brew.

also if so should I be making this slurry into a starter, in a similar process as the starter made for the dry yeast pakcet?

Um... I generally do make it into a starter, but it's not strictly necessary. It depends on how viable the yeast is. Lets say I took my smackpack and cultured it up in a starter on my stir plate, then repitched the slurry from that first starter into a second starter, then split that into six and put them in the fridge, then used one of those six in a brew within about 2 months, then I'd be pretty confident that there'd be a decent yeast population in there. The rest of the time I'd make a starter.

[Boonie]

I have an expired Liquid Yeast.....What do you reckon?

1. Make a starter and smell it 24 hours later to see if it worked? ie no off aroma

or

2. Chuck it

It is not a lager yeast, cannot remember which strain....

Cheers

Boonie

[rwh]

I'd make the starter, so long as it's been stored in the fridge the whole time.

[timmy]

Boonie,

I'd smack the pack and leave it for a week to puff up. Then make your starter. It's less work then if the yeasties are dead. According to John at G&G you should allow 1/2 a day per month after the date of manufacture. So that's 3 days + if your yeast is over 6 months old.
My London Ale pack took 5 days to get going and it was mfr in May last year.

Cheers,

Tim

[Kevnlis]

I have used liquid yeasts from both Wyeast and White Labs that were 8-10 months old and never had one fail. I put them stright into 250ml or so of low gravity wort (1.035 or so) and put them on the stir plate for 48 hours then I start to step it up to 2L. Chuck it in the fridge to drop all the yeast and then pitch the slurry from the bottom.

[dragonphoenix73]

9. Store the stubbies in the back of your refrigerator until you need to use them, then create a starter (go to step 2), and add this to your brew at high krausen, or about 24 hours.

Please can you explain what you mean by "high krausen"? Do you mean that you don't pitch the starter yeast until about 24 hours after you have boiled the wort up?

?/?

[warra48]

Please can you explain what you mean by "high krausen"? Do you mean that you don't pitch the starter yeast until about 24 hours after you have boiled the wort up?/?

Kraeusen is simply the frothy layer which develops on top of a fermenting brew.
High kraeusen means when the frothy layer is at its maximum. This is usually from about day 1 to 3 or so into fermentation, and before it starts to collapse back into the brew. For me, this timeframe has usually been a bit less with starters.

[rwh]

How To Brew - Glossary

Krausen (kroy-zen) - Used to refer to the foamy head that builds on top of the beer during fermentation. Also an advanced method of priming.

So in this case, you wait until the foam on the top of the starter is at its highest (as this indicates the moment of most vigorous fermentation), and then pitch the whole thing into the brew. Or you can wait for the starter to complete, tip off the "beer" and pitch the sediment only. I prefer to do it this way, especially utilising a technique called cold pitching. Also see:

How To Brew - When is My Starter Ready to Pitch