One Satchet too much for 1 gallon?

[NoIguanaForZ]

Of the beers I've made, one of my favorites started as an Irish stout recipe, which I then tweaked. I'd like to find a replacement for the Irish ale yeast, though, since my understanding is my LHBS only has that seasonally, and, you know, liquid yeast. My thinking was that I would make a 5.5 gallon batch with the same grain bill and hopping, and split it among 5-6 1 gallon jugs, fermenting each with a different yeast candidate: I'm thinking US-05, Nottingham, Windsor, BRY-97, and possibly S-04, with WLP004 as a control.

My concern, however, is whether pitching a whole satchet of one of those yeast into a <1 gallon batch is going to stress the yeast due to overcrowding, circumvent the growth phase, or otherwise not give a representative flavor perspective on their performance in a full-sized batch at the inoculation rate of 1 satchet per "5 gallon" batch.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Or have an approach to saving part of a satchet of yeast they can recommend?

 

[thekraken]

I would start with one of the online yeast calculators to estimate the appropriate amount of yeast cells for your wort(s) at one gallon. Then going by the estimated number of cells in a packet I'd "eyeball" an appropriate proportion, not worrying to much about being exact... That's just me.

As to saving partial packets, IDK. I might just make some pizza dough because I love me some pizza...

Hmmm, do you have a vacuum sealer? At any rate, at 1 gallon batch sizes it's a good opportunity for you to experiment for what saving techniques work for you. I'll be interested to hear what techniques folks have to share too.

 

[Revvy]

Have a vacuum sealer, you can always only use a small amount and re-seal the packet... Or if you're going to brew again soon just fold over the packet and tape it shut and seal that in a sandwhich back with the air as squeezed out as much as you can. I've kept them in the fridge for a couple months and used them with no issues. Another good use for leftover dry yeast is to add it to the boil as yeast energizer. Apparantly yeast are cannibals and go nuts for dead yeast, you can usually by what's called "yeast hulls" from homebrewshops for this purpose (or buy brewer's yeast at health food stores which is pretty much the same thing, dead yeast cells) and use your old half packets for that purpose. It's especially good for high grav beers.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I use 1/2 of an 11.5- or 12-gram packet per 1-gallon batch; I then roll it up very tightly and then either vacuum-seal the package or paperclip it and put it in a small ziplock with all of the air squeezed out. Either way, it goes back into the refrigerator until the next use.

Never any issues with the yeast or the beer....

 

[thekraken]

Have a vacuum sealer, you can always only use a small amount and re-seal the packet...

To clarify, you do mean re-seal the packet it self and not stick the packet in another vacuum seal bag?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

It depends on what the packet is made of; most yeast-packaging materials I've seen will not vacuum-seal, but sealing the packet in an vacuum seal bag would be just fine.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

I don't have a vacuum sealer, but it'd be pretty easy to roll up a partial yeast package and put it inside one of the little 3oz glass jars I got to store hop pellets. Sounds like that might be the most viable approach.

 

[Revvy]

To clarify, you do mean re-seal the packet it self and not stick the packet in another vacuum seal bag?

Depends on the packaging, really....It's the same with re-sealing hop packets, I've found some packaging can be re-sealed with my Food Saver, others can't.... If they can't I put it sachet into a vac bag and seal the bag.

 

[kh54s10]

Be careful if you try to seal a yeast packet on a home vacuum sealer. The vacuum will suck out all the yeast!!!!

Roll the packet down to the yeast and put that inside a vacuum bag then seal it.

 

[Revvy]

Be careful if you try to seal a yeast packet on a home vacuum sealer. The vacuum will suck out all the yeast!!!!

Roll the packet down to the yeast and put that inside a vacuum bag then seal it.

Yeah, same with if you're going to vac seal the sachet in a vac bag. Still roll the packet. In fact if I know I'm going to only be using a small portion of a packet of yeast or hop pellets I just cut off a corner of the packet.

Then with the hop packs that can seal I just vac seal at an angle below that corner.