Dry yeast starter

[JimEb]

I use a lot of dry yeast.

Tried yeast harvesting...it was a pain. Had a thought to stretch my yeast dollars by making a dry yeast starter. Figured I could make a starter with half a packet of dry yeast For one batch. That way I could get two batches out of one packet.

Is this cheapskate crazy talk or do people already do this?

 

[divrguy]

Well that means making a starter either way. I used to wash yeast and once you have it down, it's pretty easy. Now I just harvest slurry. No starter and no washing. Some will say it's a gamble but even though I've kept slurry for 4 months it smells good and ferments fine.

Btw, I use dry 05,04,Nottingham, Belle Saison as well as liquid pilsners, Kolsch and lager yeasts and I always grab some slurry.

Edit: although I will make a starter for getting a dregs or when I have a very old amount of slurry and it's always fine.

Sorry for rambling not sure I answered your question lol

 

[brew703]

I just started harvesting my yeast. I brewed a batch last weekend using harvested US-05. I didn't make a starter. All I did was let it sit at room temp for about three hours, decanted and swirled to get the creamy goodness. Pitched and that was it. Fermentation took about 8 hrs to begin but really ramped up around the two-three day mark. Lasted for a couple more days before settling down. Now a nice big krausen ring remains.

I looked at washing yeast but it was too time consuming so I opted to harvest.
I normally don't use much liquid but I will harvest a batch of 2112 and also 3068 which will be brewed this weekend.

I do plan on marking a starter, especially one where I can over-build and harvest more yeast for future batches. tired of paying $7 for liquid when I need it.

 

[didinho]

I use a lot of dry yeast.

Tried yeast harvesting...it was a pain. Had a thought to stretch my yeast dollars by making a dry yeast starter. Figured I could make a starter with half a packet of dry yeast For one batch.

a starter with dry yeast is useless. the number of cells in a bag is higher that the cells you can get with a 1-2 liter starter.
harvesting is a good method: if you use harvested yeast 1-2 weeks later, you don't need a starter of it, you can just pitch it in your batch

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've read where the average cell count in a packet of dry yeast is about 100 billion cells, more of them will be viable after rehydrating them correctly prior to pitching. I've also read that a 2 liter yeast starter on a stirplate can produce as many as 240 billion cells from a single vial containing 100 billion cells.

I've used a packet of dry yeast to ferment a simple 4.5% ale and then washed that yeast and stored it away for future brews. Each time I used the stored yeast I would make another starter from it first. Dry yeast is easy to get for me, it's not too expensive and it does save me a lot of time.

I think using a good water profile to make the wort supplemented with yeast nutrient then oxygenating it combined with strict temperature control throughout fermentation are more important to ensuring the quality of the beer produced.

 

[flars]

I use a lot of dry yeast.

Tried yeast harvesting...it was a pain. Had a thought to stretch my yeast dollars by making a dry yeast starter. Figured I could make a starter with half a packet of dry yeast For one batch. That way I could get two batches out of one packet.

Is this cheapskate crazy talk or do people already do this?

Washing/rinsing yeast is time consuming. I just harvest the yeast now. Swirl the beer and yeast left in the fermentor and pour out into a quart jar sanitized with Starsan. If you have a lot of hop debris, let the carboy rest on its side for 15 to 20 minutes before pouring off a quart to let the hop debris settle. Block the carboy from rolling. I usually end up with 375 milliliters of yeast after a few days time for compaction.
Method is also detailed here.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=519995

 

[Gavin C]

Starter with dry yeast is not going to be to your beer's benefit.

Just harvest the slurry like @flars mentioned.

So easy to do.

• Sanitize some yeast storage vessels and lids. (Boiling mason jars for 1 minute does the trick)
  
• Rack the beer to keg/bottling bucket
  
• Leave the trub behind and enough beer to swirl it all up into suspension (0.25"-0.5" is more than enough)
  
• Pour the slurry into the prepared jars
  
• Cap loosely, label and refrigerate
  
• Tighten lids after a day or so
  
• Use as is or with a starter depending on the predicted viability and slurry volume available.

Trillions of yeast cells at the bottom of the FV


Free harvested yeast slurry ready to pitch.


This method is extremely useful, but particulary useful if you use the same type of yeast for many of your beers. You can harvest far more than you will need. Works for any and all yeast types.

 

[JimEb]

My thoughts were to make starter only to increase cell counts because I'd be using a partial packet of dry yeast.

That way I figure I'd be able to stretch a packet of yeast on the front end...without having to harvest/wash yeast from the bottom of my carboy.

 

[joshesmusica]

Yeah I had been making oversized starters in order to harvest yeast, figuring that it's gonna be cleaner and healthier. Before that I was trying the harvesting/washing after fermentation.
Recently I completely forgot to pour off some before I pitched an Irish ale yeast. So I just took about a half liter (after it compacted), and made a brew day vitality starter. I was surprised to see how easily the trub from the last batch separated and settled out, or was at the top of the tiny krausen that had formed. So it was pretty clean yeast I pitched as I tried to leave that trub layer behind, and I skimmed off the stuff on top of the krausen. That was Friday and when I got home Sunday night from being away for the weekend, it had pretty much finished up the most vigorous part of fermentation and most of the krausen had already dropped.

After seeing the brulosophy experiment that pitted harvested unwashed yeast without a starter vs a fresh vial with a starter, and tasters weren't able to perceive a difference in the beer, I think this might just be my method from here on out.

 

[Gavin C]

Don't wash yeast.

Collect slurry. (10 minute task to get more yeast than you can use)

 

[MattyIce]

For a while I was simply timing my batches to rack the fresh wort on to the cake of the brew that I just kegged. Life was easy.

 

[mjcoss]

I think that a reasonable approach would be to re-hydrate 1/2 packet, and make a 1 gal batch of wort, and pitch the yeast. Essential just a big starter. Then harvest the slurry into a set of mason jars after the yeast have finished. Should get you a decent amount of yeast, and each jar can be the foundation for yet another starter. Bit of work, but I don't think it's all that crazy.