Making more of yeast

[Donjon]

I'm wanting to start making more of my yeast packets. I'm using the mangrove jack range mostly.

I intend to set aside some wort from my next few brew and let it ferment for a few days, split it into 3, freeze them and use these individually when the time comes. Does that sound ok?

I'm going to be making a Belgian style soon and I'll be making some Candi syrup. Could I do the same with this? Dilute it to a decent og, add my m41, leave it for a few days, divide and freeze?

 

[Zephyr259]

It's doable, but might be more hassle than it's worth with dried yeast. The amount you store will probably need to be rebuilt in a starter before being re-used which takes DME and ideally a stirplate.

Growing yeast in candi sugar isn't ideal as it's got no nutrients so the yeast will be stressed. Also freezing yeast needs to be dosed with glycerol or it'll be killed.

My practice is that when I brew I build a starter which grows 100 billion cells more than needed then I store that extra volume and pitch the rest. Next brew I re-built the stored yeast and once again overbuild by 100b cells. I've kept strains going for years this way and makes an 8 quid pack of yeast do many batches for the additional cost of 100 - 150 g of DME per brew. Does kinda need a stirplate otherwise the starter volumes get big quick.

 

[Donjon]

It's doable, but might be more hassle than it's worth with dried yeast. The amount you store will probably need to be rebuilt in a starter before being re-used which takes DME and ideally a stirplate.

Growing yeast in candi sugar isn't ideal as it's got no nutrients so the yeast will be stressed. Also freezing yeast needs to be dosed with glycerol or it'll be killed.

My practice is that when I brew I build a starter which grows 100 billion cells more than needed then I store that extra volume and pitch the rest. Next brew I re-built the stored yeast and once again overbuild by 100b cells. I've kept strains going for years this way and makes an 8 quid pack of yeast do many batches for the additional cost of 100 - 150 g of DME per brew. Does kinda need a stirplate otherwise the starter volumes get big quick.

Thanks for the information. It looks like it's impractical and unnecessary for the time being!

So how many different yeast strains do you have going simultaneously?

 

[foxy]

Thanks for the information. It looks like it's impractical and unnecessary for the time being!

So how many different yeast strains do you have going simultaneously?

Not worth the bother with dried yeast best you can do is keep a slurry in the fridge for a couple of weeks, but can't keep on being reused.
Here is an article about freezing yeast.
https://byo.com/article/yeast-ranching-advanced-homebrewing/

 

[Zephyr259]

Right now I have 3 strains, Wyeast's Scottish Ale, Belgian Ardennes and Omega's DIPA. Think my max was about 7 or 8 but that included 3 kveik strains which are much easier to keep since you only need to scoop out about a teaspoon of the slurry for a batch then rebuild the starter every few months when it's looking low.

After 6 months 100 billion cells drops in vitality to about 25b, conveniently a 500 ml starter on the stir plate bring this back up to 100b. So when I had a lot more yeast on the go I'd have to keep a few going like this. That's why I'm down to three, I've a clean strain and an estery one for bitters and hoppy pales and a belgian one. I just pitched a lager strain into it's 3rd beer this year and didn't bother with an overbuild, also ditched my saison and west yorkshire strains as they were getting a bit old and I wanted to use other strains to learn something new.

 

[johncrobinson]

To grow yeast like the big firms do you need to pay attention to all the micro nutrients.

That said my father kept his own strain of yeast going for over two decades