Stupid Question....

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Eh Up,

I love the yeast from Bengal Lancer and use it quite a bit. I have recovered it from bottles many times without any problems and also recovered it from bottles of my own brew..

When doing this I have always stepped up from 20ml-200ml-2litres etc...

I have harvested yeast from my own bottles that are over a year old. I guess the yeast goes dormant when all the sugars have been consumed and as the bottle is under pressure with C02 then no air will contaminate the yeast...This got me thinking...

Why not bottle the yeast from the bottom of the fermenter?

 

[Jeltz]

I thought that's what yeast washing was

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

I thought that's what yeast washing was

It is, but in the process it deteriortes due to air contamination...my point is that yeast is viable in the bottom of a bottle for over a year, My idea is to do the yeast wash in normal way then decant the very concentrated yeast into a small bottle and crown cap it...

 

[Jeltz]

Sounds interesting. I guess there is only one way to find out.

Could you "prime" the bottle to use up any remaining oxygen?

 

[Good Ed]

Aleman posted this practice a year or so back; when running off the beer from primary leave behind 1-2L of beer, then tip the bucket slightly to get a bit more sediment into suspension, then bottle this in 250ml bottles with no priming. When making the starter, open a bottle, pour off the beer apart from an inch or so, swirl it around to re suspend the yeast and add to the starter wort. I've only done it once.

If it's good enough for the 'man then ..... :thumb: eh up

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

gonna give it a go...ive got a couple of 250ml bottles, so will drop the trub into a sanitised jar, shove into the fridge to separate out the yeast and bottle that in the little bottles I have...

 

[Aleman]

Large volumes of yeast don't store particularly well. Once autolysis sets in then it is an exponential decay, this is why the 'use by' date on slurry is really about 6 weeks at most assuming cold storage.

If bottling a thin slurry then it's important to be sure that fermentation has finished . . . unless you like beige (walls and ceiling), but you can keep the yeast under beer for 12 months or more (even more if you store it in a fridge)

You really only need a few mm of yeast on the bottom at most . . . again a starter should be a matter of course

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

righty ho Tony,

so a sludgy one in the fridge, if only a few mm works, then storing brill yeasts this way is easy peasy...Many thanks

 

[Crastney]

previously I've poured the remains from a second racking straight into a sterilised marmite jar, added a tsp of nutrient, and a dash of AJ, and stuck that in the fridge. It was a champagne yeast used to make ginger beer, and after several months, it started fine in AJ with nutrient for a rhubarb ginger wine a few days ago. ... maybe I was just lucky.

 

[paddone]

Old post... Sorry but I am new to this forum and thought I would add my penny to the pot!

My only concern for your yeast is pressure build up. If a capped bottle gets over 30 Psi then CO2 will kill off some of the more fragile strains in your slurry and effect the yeast profile.

You will have survival of the fittest but probably loose some depth.

Interesting experiment would be to split a batch and prime the two with A: a yeast kept refrigerated under beer or water and B: same strain recovered after sitting in a bottle under pressure. Now I'm creeping off topic and will shut up.