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Author Topic: How long can you keep your rinsed yeast?  (Read 2553 times)

Offline cableguy

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How long can you keep your rinsed yeast?
« on: December 21, 2009, 07:04:39 pm »
Hi all! Just interested as to how long rinsed yeast will keep.  I just rinsed my first yeast (Y1762 Belgian Abbey II ) and its in a mason jar under some sterilized water.  How long will it keep in the fridge like that?  Do some strains keep for less time than others?  Am I just better buying new yeast each time or is there a benefit to reusing yeast?  Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!

Offline ndcube

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Re: How long can you keep your rinsed yeast?
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2009, 05:02:39 am »
Not sure about the different strains but there is a lot of benefit in reusing yeast.

1) It's a great way to have a lot of yeast on hand to make a big beer w/o a starter (if the yeast is less than a few weeks old).
2) It saves you money.

Well, that's 2 anyway.

If it's more than a few weeks old than make a starter with it. I don't think I've used it after 6-8 months but it may keep longer than that.  I haven't tried.

Offline wzl46

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Re: How long can you keep your rinsed yeast?
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2009, 09:55:34 am »
I haven't started doing this myself yet, but the Brew Strong podcast about rinsing yeast seems to have a lot of great information.
It was said that some yeast strains do save better than others. 
Yeast infections are only bad when they don't happen to wort.

Offline beerrat

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Re: How long can you keep your rinsed yeast?
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2009, 09:37:23 am »
I just started rinsing and re-pitching yeast.  I've stored 1084Irish ale for a week in a mason jar with foil in the frig and had good success using in my latest stout.  I brought to room temp, decanted swirled, and then pitched in the wort.  I think I would do a starter next time as there was a bit of lag before fermentation started.

Anyone have any thoughts on best way to store yeast for longer then 2 weeks, say a month?  Refrigerated in a  sealed mason jar, a capped beer bottle, or foil covered container?

I listened to Jamil's show and did not hear these details covered.