My plan is to brew Friday and I have about 6oz of Bry97 stored in a mason jar in my fridge under some beer. The jar has been stored in the fridge since 07-21-24 and like I said there is about 6oz of actual yeast or at least sediment in the jar. My question to you all is, how much of that should I use and how big a starter should I make? My thought is a liter starter and use maybe half the yeast in the jar. I don’t have a stir plate so the shaken not stirred method is going to be in play. I have some dry yeast still sealed in the fridge just in case this does not work. Any input would be welcomed.
This is just my experience with re-pitched yeast and I almost always have done it this way when I collected yeast. I’m at the place where I use new in the pack dry yeast or liquid. The night before brew day I take the mason jar out of the refrigerator and leave at room temp. Do nothing to it except pour off most of the beer and loosen the lid to prevent pressure build up. On brew day, swirl everything together and pitch the whole jar. For my 15 gallon batch size I probably collected 2/3 of a quart jar. I don’t know how much yeast was viable but I can say it always fermented to terminal. I have also built yeast starters with re-pitched yeast using much less than the full amount I initially collected. Either way doing it I never had an off tasting beer. They always tasted the same to me and my wife. Im not suggesting you do it this way but I practiced this for a couple of years with great success.
So, here is my plan. My brew day is Friday, so Thursday I am going to make a 1.5 Liter starter using 1.5 liters of water 150 grams of light DME. I will boil the water, add he DME and boil again for about 15 mins. If I come up with less that 1.5 liters of wort I will add water to get it to the desired amount. I will take the yeast out of the fridge in the morning to get it to room temp before I pitch, cool the wort and pitch the yeast into my gallon sanitized glass container. My plan is to use about 2 to 3oz of the yeast in the jar. Shake the holy crud out of it and let it sit on the counter where it will probably get to somewhere in the high 60’s to low 70’s. I will shake it as I walk by it and try and do so every hour or so. On Friday brew day commences. Usually my brew day ends with the pitching of the yeast somewhere around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, sometimes later than that. That gives my starter at least 24 hours to do it’s thing. Does this sound like a pretty good plan? This will be my first attempt at reusing yeast that has been sitting for a while. The last time I did it right after I kegged my beer in the fermenter so there was no lag time at all, maybe a day or so.
I know I am asking a lot of stupid questions, but this is how I learn and I am looking forward to adding yeast storage to my process so that I can get into the liquid yeasts and the different strains to make different styles. Thank you to those who contributed, again, I apologize for the stupid questions, but I gotta learn somehow. LOL Rock on!!!
I think your plan is fine. Although you can skip the periodic shake of the starter as you walk by. You can do that if you want, but don’t need to. It will be totally fine just sitting there.
And just to mention, your questions aren’t stupid at all. 
A larger starter than I’d probably do, but fine.
A little over 12 hours in and most of the yeast has settled to the bottom. But, when I pitch yeast into wort out of the package it seems to do that for the first 12 to 14 hours anyway. I don’t need it until tomorrow so I am going to press on and see what happens.
How’d it go?
Very frustrating. I cannot get a picture to post here so I cannot show what the yeast looked like in the starter. I was able to post the photo in HBT and the consensus was that is was dead and probably not useable. Well, I tried anyway and so far about a day and a half no activity at all in the airlock and the lid is sealed all around. The funny thing is, when I first pitched it, there was a huge amount of sediment that has since gone. The bucket is not clear so I cannot tell what might be going on. The smell coming from it is much the same as it is when I use a fresh package of dry yeast. Maybe it is just hopeful thinking. I have to work starting tonight, so I am going to let it run a week and test the gravity on it and see what happens. I am not holding much hope for it, but what the heck, it was worth a try. Thanks for asking.
That yeast was only 7 weeks old when you pitched it. I’d be pretty shocked if it was dead. I’ve stored yeast under beer in the fridge for far longer than that without issue.
I’ve never used BRY-97 myself, but many people have posted about it being slow to take off.
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Well, it has had absolutely no activity and there is a settled white cake at the bottom of the bucket. It was my first attempt at this so maybe my process was not good. I have a packet of Bry that I might throw in the fermenter to see what happens. I hate to lose it if I can save it, but it has been sitting in the fermenter bucket since Friday at about 65 degrees. Any input on whether I should wait or not or just toss the whole thing and try again is welcomed.
Can you check the gravity?
Thank you for the reply. I was going to do that in the next day or two. I am leaning towards the yeast being no good when I pitched it, but I was going to check it for the heck of it anyway.
OK, so here is where I get to eat a little crow. Seems the yeast worked pretty well as I just checked my gravity and it shows to be at about 1.010. My brewfather sheet said it should be 1.012 so I am close. I noticed on the bucket that where the tie string for my dry hop addition goes might not be sealed well, so maybe the gas leaked out of there. Either way, it seems to have fermented perfectly. So, my plan at this point is to dry hop it for about 3 days, move it to a storage keg and keep it under pressure and in a closet.
Dang I feel like such an idiot. I read all the time to check the seal and I just did not do it. My gratitude to all of you who replied and now at least I feel a bit better about the starter I did and the yeast I stored. Will I do it again? Probably not until I can do the test tube freezer method, but glad to know this might have worked out ok. And for what it is worth, it has a very strong lemon smell like others I have done with Bry yeast. Rock On!!!
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IMO, test tubes in a freezer are more hassle than they’re worth.
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You are not the first person to fall victim of a “clandestine” fermentation. Another reason to RDWHAHB
So what is your method of saving yeast Denny? Do you do the mason jars and a starter like most? Not being a wise guy, honest question
Yep, that’s exactly what I do. Although, frankly, I seldom even do that any more. I’ve done plates and plants, freezing, and just saving slurry like you mention. These days, 99% of the time I just buy new yeast for each batch. I’m trading money for ease.
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For several years I poured the slurry from my primary bucket into quart jars and stored them in my refrigerator, then reused it for the next batch - but over time the flavor of some seemed to change and I got some contamination from a diastatic yeast. For the past few years I’ve been freezing the slurry from a first generation fermentation in little 4 oz jelly jars, mixed 50-50 with a 30% glycerin solution. For a new batch of beer I just let one jar thaw and mix it into some wort and let it spin on my homemade stir plate for a few days before brewing.
I’ve never had any problems with the yeast survival and the little jars take up less space than quart jars, plus I can be more confident that there are no genetic changes or contamination.
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