500g packs too big. what to do?

[amcclai7]

I have a 3 BBL system and by my calculations 200-250g of dry yeast is appropriate for most beers. Does anybody have a solid way to save the yeast in between pitches? I'm assuming vacuum seal and refrigerate might work. I have checked and it seems like the only options are the 10-11g hombrew packs (which maybe the better option?) or the 500g. Nothing in between.

[StephenP]

The dry yeast companies say that once a packet is opened you can reseal and store cold for up to seven days. In my experience this is a very conservative number, and as long as you practice good sanitation and reseal the unused portion, returning to a near freezing environment, you are good for several weeks, possibly even longer.

[amcclai7]

I have a vaccum sealer and of course sanitizers. The longest I would imagine going in between pitches would be 2-3 weeks. I think that should be ok. The only thing that frustrates me about this is I seem to be mitigating one of the only benifits of dry yeast. Namely, that you don't have to worry about contamination or lack of viability from re-pitching. Have you done this frequently enough to say that this shouldn't be an issue?

[StephenP]

Dry yeast already contains very small amounts of Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and non-Saccharomyces wild yeast. It's one of the things they haven't been able to get around with the drying process, but the benefits of ultra long cold storage and high viability make it a non-issue if you maintain good standards. In China the government has not allowed the importation of liquid yeast, so dry yeast is almost exclusively used in the craft beer community (except for a suitcase run here and there to Hong Kong). I have had no issues this past year with using smaller pitches and storing the remainder for several weeks at a time (now brewing 10BBL so no longer an issue for me, but other brewers I know here continue to partial pitch and save). The yeast companies are not going to sign off on this for obvious reasons, but from your process description I wouldn't imagine any issues at all.

[amcclai7]

Thanks for the reassurance!