starting a yeast colony

[scheelings]

I'd like to do this for 2 reasons:

1) Brewing yeast is really expensive where I live as it all has to be imported by me.

2) I'd like to experiment a lot. To do this, I'm going to buy lots of bungs & airlocks for standard bottles and ferment in the bottle.

So I think the best approach would be to get a batch of yeast growing which I can use to subsequently ferment a batch when I need it. Is there a reliable way to do this without risking contamination?

Is there a limited time I can do it for?

Can I freeze / chill it to limit colony expansion / contamination?

 

[PD]

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=155

I did this a few weeks ago with some sa-04 dry yeast.
I grew it on and ended up with half a dozen pet bottles containing enough yeast in each for another brew. ( I just did 6 as it was a trial, could easily have got more )
These yeasts have been stored in the fridge ( bottles topped up with cooled boiled water ) and 2 have already been used on successful brews.

My daughter has just fetched me 10 packets of ladies traveling make up bottles from Poundland I believe, at £1 each that's a total of 30 bottles ( around 200-300ml each ) big enough for yeast samples and small enough not to take too much room up in the fridge.
I've just ordered a couple of Whitelabs yeasts and intend to grow them on and split them into 2 lots of 12. so that will be 24 bottles of yeast costing £12, a good saving I think.

Hoping Sunday will be a yeast producing day..... :grin:

 

[BreadMurderer]

I'm very keen to do this in the future, cheers for the above link. :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=155

I did this a few weeks ago with some sa-04 dry yeast.
I grew it on and ended up with half a dozen pet bottles containing enough yeast in each for another brew. ( I just did 6 as it was a trial, could easily have got more )
These yeasts have been stored in the fridge ( bottles topped up with cooled boiled water ) and 2 have already been used on successful brews.

My daughter has just fetched me 10 packets of ladies traveling make up bottles from Poundland I believe, at £1 each that's a total of 30 bottles ( around 200-300ml each ) big enough for yeast samples and small enough not to take too much room up in the fridge.
I've just ordered a couple of Whitelabs yeasts and intend to grow them on and split them into 2 lots of 12. so that will be 24 bottles of yeast costing £12, a good saving I think.

Hoping Sunday will be a yeast producing day..... :grin:

Not sure I would make up 24 in one go. I believe yeast looses viability in time, even in a fridge. I never split a whitelabs vial more than 6 ways, brewing every other week it meant storing no more than 12 weeks. As for starting a yeast colony I would strongly advise buying the yeast book, explains it very well.