buckets of grain, buckets of yeast....

[kayemkerner]

i'm just wondering what you all are using to maintain your yeast after harvesting and before repitching....

i've used everything from a five gallon bucket to soda kegs and ponies but everything has always left me with a "grass is always greener" feeling....

do you use all or some or neither? is your brewery outfitted with a propogation system?

brewery: 7 bbl, old dairy conversion, no pilot system for propogation, etc....

any information on this topic would be helpful as this is something i've received rediculous amounts of information and all of it pulls me in opposite directions....

gracias in advance....

[Sauce]

Lets see...

Started off with the previous brewers method of a stainless steel bucket with a loosed fitting lid.

Immediately began covering it with restaurant seran wrap and tape and began searching for alterantives like yourself. I've seen cornie kegs used in the past, but I was a little concerned with all the nooks a crannies that might hide spoilers as well as not having any nice inline fittings for adding the yeast.

Had hoped to find a nice old stainless steel milk jug (big opening, sealable lid), but even the dairy farmer who takes my spent grain couldnt locate one.

Messed around with glass carboys, but they are too hard to fill and dangerous to move around full all the time.

Finally settled on 7 gallon "Ale Pales" (home brewing fementation buckets).
They are sealable, easy to clean (carefully) and cheap enough to discard when you notice scratches or 6- 8 months go by (whatever comes first).

Scratches are a big concern, but I clean them imediately after use and only with deluted caustic and a terricloth rag.

Any onther ideas? Always looking for something better, heck thats why I'm on this site;-)


JackK

[beertje46]

Five and ten gallon ss milk cans with lid:

http://lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=616&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=677&iSubCat=678&iProductID=616

Lehman's is located in Dalton, OH.

[BelgianBrewer]

Neither

In breweries we we do not brew on a daily basis, we never harvest yeast and always start from a petridish colony.
Propagation in steps to the required volume, all lab work.

It is a lot of work but we never get any contamination and absolute perfect control on fermenting times and status. Our master strains always stay in perfect shape.

Disadvantage of dish propagation is that the yeast will never get used to your beer and modify itself to optimize fermentation.

So we use neither buckets nor ponies or soda kegs, just glass Erlenmeier flasks. For larger operations, specific yeast propagation plants.


BelgianBrewer

https://www.sbmbrew.com

[Sauce]

sweet

Thanks for the link Dave! A lil pricey, but they should last a lifetime....a brewers lifetime that is;-)

JackK

[bford]

Good 'ol stainless

I use modified half barrel straight sided kegs. Usually have a 4" tc fitting welded into the top w/ a 1-1/2 tc welded into the 4' cap. A 1-1/2" tc fitting on the bottom for a drain. These are easy to sanitize and collect yeast in.

This may be a little harder to get yourself to do given the current keg shortage/high prices!

[Michael Murphy]

In breweries we we do not brew on a daily basis, we never harvest yeast and always start from a petridish colony.
Propagation in steps to the required volume, all lab work.

BelgianBrewer
http://www.sterkensbrew.be/sbm/

I brew on a daily basis, I usually harvest the same day as I repitch it, I harvest into a modified 50lt keg, no real lab work here, just pitch n go sorta, But i havent lost a batch yet, it usually tastes the same. Id like to do some lab work on the yeast but time is a an issue, until I start losing bad batches im sticking to the keg of fresh slurry.

I get you on the flask though, good way to store, but depending on brew size Id need a big flask. Or as you say propagation equipment. When I change the yeast i buy direct 2 x 10lt slurry and pitch into a half batch, fill it with another 1.5 batches over the next 3 days.

I have stored yeast in a keg for up to 3 weeks though worked out fine.

[jason.koehler]

We have enough fermenters that we don't have to store...we just leave a few hundred liters of the last batch in the cone, and pump the new stuff right ontop of it after it goes through the heat exchanger. Never had an issue with infection, yeast gets plenty of training working on the same kind of beer...less work and cleanup too

[beertje46]

and pump the new stuff right on top of it after it goes through the heat exchanger. Never had an issue with infection,

How many consecutive batches will practice this?

[BigWilley]

Sabco sells nice converted kegs w/pressure relief and a 4" tri-clamp fitting on top. Not cheap but neither is yeast. One fresh pitch for 15 bbls will cost more than a converted keg.

[Steve M.]

yeast cropping

We are a varied brewhouse: some dairy, some old maple sugar ops, some new equipment as well. We do propigate our yeast from slants due to realized vitality from being "house raised on house-wort" versus lab sugars- however everyone has their own opinion on this. We use 10 gallon cornelius kegs for storage ( 10 gals. = +/- 60 pounds of slurry for us) and generally pitch 8-12 pounds per seven barrels of wort ( approx. 8-12 million cells per milliliter with our slurry ). However I feel the most important aspect is, regardless of what you keep it in, is how you store your crop prior to pitching. We used to have some problems with lag time, especially with lager strains which could span a month between pitches. After talking with Chris Ericson at Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, he recommended keeping yeast slurries in ice baths. This made a HUGE translation to storagability and general health of all of our yeasts, also we "vent" the cornies atleast every day as well. No more lag times. Obviously, every yeast strain behaves differently, the key seems to be to treat it as best as possible by storing it well and pitching it within a week or two of cropping.
Hope this opinion helps....Steve

[BrendanM]

If you brew 2-3 times a week, could you keep a slurry in a 5 gallon corny and feed it with fresh wort every now and then?

I went to a brewing science institute short course, and the Teacher was going to let us in on "propper" storage practices after the course, but everyone split in a hurry to the local brewery for the after party! He made it sound that keeping yeast under fermented beer is not the best (worked fine for me for a few years at home.) but that frequent "feeding" is best.



I am currently struggling to brew on a 6 kettle BOP system.
www.aksarbenbrewingcompany.com - for the sampling portion of our micro/bop. I have been using Dry yeasts for the ease... and with the BOPs it makes sence. - I'd like to start using some liquid yeasts and I have propigated some 1027(london ale) and have 4.5 gallns of beer on top of the yeast right now. I'd like to pitch half in to the 3bbl batch and save and (grow) the other half. - now I could keep using the bucket.. and I certianly agree cornies would take lots of work to get perfectly clean. But along soak in, or pumping near boiling water in should help kill some bugs along with some star-xene.

ALso, does anyone have any suggestions or comments about yeast washing? - Five star recomends something like 4ml of straight star-xene to a gallon of slurry, the low ph will activate the chlorine, and kill bacterias.. .but not wild yeasts.


Thanks..

And thank you to the search function!
Brendan

[Moonlight]

One step beyond plastic buckets could be the clear rectangular (polycarbonate?) 5 gallon food tubs found at restaurant supply stores. They are around $40, I think, but they resist scratches compared to the usual white buckets, have a snug lid, and are clear so you can see how your yeast is looking in terms of thin and beery vs thick and more cells per gallon.
I prefer the modified quarter barrel keg but that was several hundred dollars. And if you are in a brewpub, see if you can sneak the above tubs onto the kitchen budget!

[Steve M.]

Brendan

Brandan,
It would seem to me if you are brewing 2-3 x's a week, cropping from the ferments would be best, however, with a BOP it may not be so simple.
If you have a strong and regularly pitched yeast, then it should withstand a week to maybe two of continual pitching, without feeding, if you keep it in an ice bath and vent it ATLEAST daily (thinking that you have the ability to crop off ferments and then repitch). As always, it depends on the yeast.
Then as far as storage containers, cornies work great, even with all the little fittings and washers, just make your final sanitization step is steaming. Leave a quart or so of H2O in the cornie, set up on a outdoor propane burner, with appropriate gas and liquid fittings on the cornie, and steam for 5-10 minutes. Attach CO2 and allow to cool to cropping tempature. Sealed cornies are a "decent safe bet" against contamination.
Remember with feeding, there is always the possibility of introducing a wort spoiler/contamination to the mixture.
Good Luck,
Steve M

[johnstuart]

Yeast

I've used soda kegs with good results for more than ten years.. Yes, they have nooks and crannies, but along the way I found a large SS soak tank to keep them in sanitizer when not in use. I take the long tube popet valve out, and clamp on a 2 ft piece of 1/2" tubing w/ a TC fitting on the other end. That way I don't have to deal with the sanitary nightmare that balllock fittings are... IMO

I also harvest even if I don't need it. Date tag the keg, toss it in the cooler, and when you do brew, use the freshest one.

GWKent sells a nifty little inline injector thats cheep enough, and works.

If you need a larger pitch volume, the welded half barrels from Sabco look neat.

I've done the pail trick, too. The yeast always seems to climb out of the pail. Messy.

HTH, js