How long have you successfully stored liquid yeast for?

[dillz2003]

Up until this year my goto yeasts were dried yeasts. Usually US04, US05 and Nottingham Danstar. This year I decided to be a bit more adventurous and buy some liquid yeasts to explore the flavours that different yeasts would add to my beers.

Anyway, I have been in the habit of building a starter to 1.5 litres, I then put the yeast from 1 litre (after decanting from the liquid) into the beer and the remaining half litre not decanted is kept in a jar in the fridge. I then repeat the process when I want that yeast again. I've used a yeast calculator but realistically can only best guess how many actual cells I have. What I've been doing seems to work OK though.

What I'm interested to know from my fellow brewers is how long have you successfully stored your home harvested yeast in the fridge? I appreciate a lot would depend on the initial quality and quantity and I know the colour of the yeast is supposedly a good indicator of health but it would be good to know people's own personal experiences. What's the longest you have kept yours?

 

[Linalmeemow]

I had a big jar of harvested slurry in the fridge for about 7-8 months. I had a mishap on brewday and lost the only yeast sachet I had in the house at pitching time, and had no option other than to pitch the slurry with no starter.

It was bubbling away happily within about 8 hours and the beer was fantastic.

 

[dillz2003]

Thank you that's really interesting. This is why I like to hear real life experience because if you read all the brew myths that perpetuate the internet they probably say slurry will self destruct in 3 weeks (or some carp like that )

My overbuilt starter probably only has a fraction of the yeast that was in your slurry jar. Perhaps I should consider scooping up some slurry in future instead. Did you wash the yeast out of interest or just scoop and store?

I'm interested because I have some pilsner and saison yeast that I probably won't use again until early next year. I could just fire up another starter between now and then to refresh it, but want to keep the costs and effort to a minimum.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Thank you that's really interesting. This is why I like to hear real life experience because if you read all the brew myths that perpetuate the internet they probably say slurry will self destruct in 3 weeks (or some carp like that )

My overbuilt starter probably only has a fraction of the yeast that was in your slurry jar. Perhaps I should consider scooping up some slurry in future instead. Did you wash the yeast out of interest or just scoop and store?

I'm interested because I have some pilsner and saison yeast that I probably won't use again until early next year. I could just fire up another starter between now and then to refresh it, but want to keep the costs and effort to a minimum.

Just swilled the dregs of the beer after bottling to loosen up the yeast stuck to the bottom of the FV and poured it straight into a sanitised jar. Over a few days the yeast compacts and a layer of beer protects it. When it comes to repitching just pour off the beer and pitch as much as you think necessary, making sure to leave the crud at the bottom as this will be trub and dead yeast.

I should point out that this method is not considered good practice, and I'd normally only use slurry of this age to make a starter. I used this experience to illustrate that yeast is far more resilient than some seem to think. I'd normally only repitch without a starter in the couple of weeks after harvesting.

Also worth noting I did rinse yeast a couple of times (see ) but never found any advantage.

 

[dillz2003]

Thanks I would certainly aim to build a starter from the slurry if only to validate that the yeast is still healthy and viable.