getting the best value from White labs/liquid yeasts

[timbowden]

I've recently tried a white labs vial of liquid yeast over a packet of SO4 dried yeast. The beer is still fermenting so as far as taste is concerned that is not a concern, the thing is the liquid yeast was far more expensive than the dried. I have read that some people are stating 6 or 7 uses from these liquid yeast vials - How so????
How are you guys getting more value from these vials? Are you splitting the initial vial - if so how? If not then what do you recommend doing?

I'm hoping the taste is better (although ive never had a problem with SO4) but at this cost i cant see myself continuing!

tim

 

[pittsy]

hi, you got 4 ways .
pitching onto sediment ... easiest but infections are more likely
saving krausen and making a starter with it ( probably the best and can be done many times)
making a large starter and splitting it .
making up a little starter from a bottle of brew then making bigger starters to a pitchable size , if you forget about yeast and haven't any then this is excellent way out .

 

[timbowden]

hi pittsy,
Saving Krausen - how do you do this then? does it have to be made into a starter immediately and how? How long can it be kept until the next brew?

sorry, i know nothing about this side of brewing as i'v always just opened packets!!!

 

[fisherman]

Look on uk homebrew website Dave shows in pictures how to culture Whitelabs yeast into 10 or 12 yeast staters. I do it on a regular basis. VERY EASY AND ECONOMICAL.

 

[timbowden]

Thanks fisherman, that's very useful especially as I have a spare vial in the fridge! :thumb:

 

[rpt]

There are lots of threads and how tos on this forum about how to harvest, re use and store yeast - have a good look and also use the search function. The forum at Jim's is also good with people keeping yeast on slants. You can also freeze it. The Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff is worth a read.

 

[timbowden]

Yes got the yeast book but didn't get very far with it.......

 

[Marcusp]

Found this which seems to work very well and allows you to get several starters from one yeast vial
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id45.html

 

[morethanworts]

Found this which seems to work very well and allows you to get several starters from one yeast vial
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id45.html

I think that's what 'fisherman' was referring to:

Look on uk homebrew website Dave shows in pictures how to culture Whitelabs yeast into 10 or 12 yeast staters. I do it on a regular basis. VERY EASY AND ECONOMICAL

.

Looking at that demo, I'd be even more careful than Dave is with sanitation. He appears to touch the bottom of a jug into an unsanitised looking sink at one point, presumably forgetting that liquid will run back up the outside of the jug when he pours, not just the inside. If you get an infection in your starter(s), it's probably game-over for the brew.

I can imagine doing something like this for high gravity brews, where you don't want the harvested yeast to have been through the mill. But there must be reasons why many small breweries keep yeast going by top-cropping afresh each time, at least on low/mid gravity beers.

 

[rpt]

Top cropping is the best way to re-use yeast, but it's no good if either the yeast strain is not suitable or you don't brew often enough.