Beer Forum

I buy Wyeast brand "activator" liquid yeast packs from my brew shop. But they are expensive! I figure I ought to be able to buy them only once, and then propagate them on into infinity! Can someone recommend some good reading material about how I might accomplish this? My guess is to do the following:

Pitch the yeast a small volume of wort,

Let it grow

Pitch half of it into a 5gal batch, and the rest into a new starter...

Any thoughts?

I had to edit your message because you chose some freaky color that didn't work with the default background.

Duff_Man wrote:Any thoughts?

Assuming you are brewing frequently enough and want to always use the same strain of yeast there is some merit if you keep things clean. That said many commercial breweries only re-pitch so many times before starting with a fresh batch of yeast from the lab.

I suggest you listen to this show and the pluses and minuses of what you suggest are covered.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/492

I currently am getting 5 or 6 batches from each package of yeast before tossing it out and starting fresh, and re-using from the batch of beer works for me - about 1/4 of the remaining yeast slurry for a typical batch (150ml) is enough to repitch for a typical mid gravity ale according to the age of my yeast using Mr. Malty's calculator.

http://www.mrmalty.com/

You can also wash/rinse your yeast into sanitized mason jars with pre-boiled or distilled water. Keeping things sanitary is a must for extending the life and health of your culture. There are lots of threads on this just search'em out!

JZ and Chris White's yeast book will be out in a few weeks. They are covering everything you could want to know about yeast storage and propagation, so I'd wait for that one to come out.

Here's my process: http://seanterrill.com/2010/03/23/yeast ... g-and-you/

BayouBrew wrote:JZ and Chris White's yeast book will be out in a few weeks. They are covering everything you could want to know about yeast storage and propagation, so I'd wait for that one to come out.

Can you share the title of this one so that I can keep an eye out for it?


Thanks,
Adam

biertourist wrote:Can you share the title of this one so that I can keep an eye out for it?

Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff

http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages ... ut-at-gabf