Harvesting white labs and wyeast

[Marcusp]

I'm about to try liquid yeast for the first time and about to order a couple of white labs and wyeast packs.

I've read several methods on here of splitting these yeast into several batches and then making a starter to make them go further.

I've seen posts on using slants, washing yeast after fermentation and then plotting it before freezing with glycerine and just splitting it into several starters and storing it in the fridge.

Can anyone tell me the best method to use and there seems to be several different ways to make the original sample go further.
I'm particularly interested in being able to store the separate samples in a fridge or freezer for future brews as £6 a time is a bit expensive for one brew.

What's the easiest but most effective method that you use ?

 

[pittsy]

You could just pitch vial and then skim the foam off and keep in the fridge then make a starter with it a few days before needing . You could make a 1 litre starter 100g of dme should give you 1040 (which is wanted ) ferment out then make up 5 litres with 500g dme , ferment out then store in fridge for 24hrs , decant liquid then split sediment into 5 or 10 . Make a 1 litre starter 2 days before brew day .
Or you can build up enough yeast from an inch of beer from bottle (and sediment )
When making a starter 1040 gravity is wanted unless you start from small then 1020 is wanted first . You should also multiply between 5 and 10 when making a bigger starter .
So 100ml starter with 5g dme(1020 i think ) then 500 ml with 50g dme(1040) then 2.5 litres with 250g dme (1040) and you can split this into 2 . Store remaining in fridge and if a few weeks passes make another starter to get it fresh again .

 

[clibit]

Useful info that pittsy, cheers. :thumb:

 

[rpt]

Get the Yeast book by White and Zainasheff. Some people like to store on slants and others like to freeze. I harvest from the trub, rinse and pitch into a new brew. I get 4 brews from one purchase. This does mean that I am using just one strain for several brews.

 

[Marcusp]

Just ordered the book hopefully £10 well spent

 

[paulfg]

question for pittsy/anyone
I have 2 vials of wlp002 the has a date of june 17 2014 and were in the post to greece for 1 week.I have just pitched a wlp022 yeast that wasin the same parcel ,made a 1.5 litre starter all fermenting well.
I want to grow and freeze the 002 yeast in 5-10 30ml vials(ie 15 ml yeast slurry + 15 ml glycerine/water mix)
I am thinking what starter size do I need ,one or two steps? ,I guess I need 150 billion cells based on 1 billion per ml slurry 10 vials x 15 ml=150 ml
according to yeast calculator I could easily get this with a 1.5 litre starter even with a 30% viability allowing for some extra loss due to postal times
what do you think?

 

[pittsy]

I would make a 500ml starter with 30g of dme to get into shape then make a 2.5 litre starter with 250g dme and you'll get enough for what you need .When moving a starter up you should do it between 5 and 10 times . Hope this helps

 

[paulfg]

thanks pittsy
my biggest flask is a 2 litre one how many vials do you think I could fill using a 500 starter then adding that to 1.5 litres more wort in the 2 litre flask?I have a stir plate
or is there another way
I was thinking of pitching the 2 vials together in one starter

 

[paulfg]

ok so pitched the 2 vials in 500 ml for 36 hours and then stepped up to 1.5 litres for 48 hours .now in fridge at 5 c to drop out yeast.
my next plan is to freeze it,do I drain off the stale beer and wash the yeast with boiled cooled water and then follow freezing yeast instructions?

 

[pittsy]

Yes mate

 

[paulfg]

washed the yeast 2 times with boiled cooled water now, settling over night in fridge before washing again.
man this yeast wlp002 is weired looking stuff to look at very grainy clumps not at all milky but smells ok so I guess all is well.
I am now tying to revive a wyeyeast pack with april 2013 date on it ,pitched on 200ml starter on stir plate waiting to see if any action

 

[Hopshed]

I'm a yeast freezer and have a large library of British ale strains - its kind of a side hobby now!

The Fullers strain should look like you descibe, it always reminds me of cottage cheese.