Good yeast story!

[david_the_greek]

Well, kind of a yeast story. Back after a hiatus and glad to be back at that. I just brewed a batch of English Brown Ale with the GF and decided to see if my hefeweizen yeast I stored over a year ago would come back to life. I've always been told that without lab grade freezers and/or dehydrating (I have a mini fridge with a crummy 'freezer box' for this), you couldn't store yeast more than a few months. Well, I stored some hefeweizen yeast with glycerin and just pulled it out to feed it. This stuff was stored way before I started dating my current GF and we've been dating 15 months. I was sure after the first round of malt and the stir plate that these guys were dead. Let it sit 3 days, came back to clean the flask and guess what... CARBONATION! I saw bubbles and was shocked. I through some more malt on the stove and propagated once more and DAMN these guys are hungry and ready to go. They seem a little mad that I kept them so long without feeding them. Looks like I'm going to have to make some kind of weizen beer.

 

[Nurmey]

Cool story! Just goes to show that yeast is not the "delicate flower" that it pretends to be.

 

[magnj]

I was told it's not worth storing hefe yeasts for more than a few weeks. Tell me more about your storage procedure?

 

[david_the_greek]

well I propagated my yeast after brewing a batch by feeding them some wort (well, I think a cup boiled malt and 16oz water, basically a starter) and putting them on a stir plate. After they grew a bit, I separated them out from the solution and put them into some glass jars (autoclavable jars that hold I think between 100-200 ml) with a mixture of water and glycerin. I think it was approximately 30% glycerin, though I don't remember the water to yeast ratio's. The first attempt at reviving them did not look good. After I noticed that there was some activity, I made a higher malt ratio starter and through them in. Put them on the stir plate and let'em go. DDAAAAMMMNNNN this thing took off. Need to pic up some food for these guys ASAP

 

[magnj]

Thanks. I was hoping it'd be simpler . What are the chances of some slurry lasting a month in capped bottles?

 

[john from dc]

if you use the method outlined in the thread titled "yeast washing illustrated" the yeast will last more than a month, probably 6 easily.

the complaints i've heard about storing hefe yeasts in particular have to do with their ester flavor profiles. some say that they lose some of those nice clove and banana properties after reuse but my experience has indicated otherwise. i've made fine (to my tastes, anyway) hefeweizens with washed yeast that is months old.

 

[sirsloop]

I have a good one... Why did the yeastie go see the doctor???







WORTS! BWAHAHAHAH

 

[boo boo]

Thanks. I was hoping it'd be simpler . What are the chances of some slurry lasting a month in capped bottles?

It is one thing to bottle condition beer but it is another thing to store yeast slurry in a capped bottle. You are asking for a bottle bomb.

Slurry will last in a sanatized jar for several months if kept down toward 34f. As long as it don't turn the colour of peanut better and remains the light colour it was initially, then you should be OK. Just wake it up with some fresh wort before pitching.

 

[magnj]

It is one thing to bottle condition beer but it is another thing to store yeast slurry in a capped bottle. You are asking for a bottle bomb.

Slurry will last in a sanatized jar for several months if kept down toward 34f. As long as it don't turn the colour of peanut better and remains the light colour it was initially, then you should be OK. Just wake it up with some fresh wort before pitching.

The yeast I bottled was slurry from a yeast cake. I'm under the assumption that there is no more food for that yeast and it should produce little or no CO2, no bombs. The bottle, cap, etc. were all sanitized.