Using half yeast

[Urbangoose]

forgive my continued newbie questions - but this forum is giving me an outlet for things I have pondered for sometime. I make small batch beer using a 1 or 2 Gallon Set-up ... the yeast I buy is suitable to make 5 gallons - am I therefore ok to halve each packet? If so, how is this best stored?

 

[Alex.mc]

I've successfully split a 5 gallon Saison brew into a 4 and a 1 gallon brews, and divided the 11g of yeast pro-rata using a jewellers scales rated for 0.1g accuracy.
It worked fine, but I think the concensus will.likely be that the cost of a packet of yeast is tiny in comparison to the effort and time that goes into a brew and your better to pitch the whole lot and use a new packet each time.
Tightly wrapped and in the freezer is probably ok for short periods.

I'm sure more experienced brewers will weigh in with better answers soon though.

 

[divrack]

I don't think you need worry about splitting it. If you have one of those clip things especially. Wouldn't keep it for ever, but given that it's initially sterile and dry there shouldn't be too much chance of anything growing in it.
You could also overpitch without problems

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
As @Alex.mc and @divrack suggested, overpitch.
Alternatively, use half and chuck the rest out.
Dried yeast is relatively cheap enough to make this viable.