Cultivating Yeast/Brew Lab

[mr.drankin]

Has anybody had any experience or thoughts on cultivating yeast.  I have ordered brew labs yeast(£3.60)  to test out my home made magnetic stirrer. 

Can you just get one starter out of 1 test tube or can you keep cloning it

[Bill_00]

Should be able to clean the trub and get a good 2 or 3 brews out of it.

Matthew is your man for this though

[mr.drankin]

I was thinking more on the lines of making a yeast starter, bottling it, getting some of the yeast starter in the bottle and creating another yeast starter with it.

[matthewdick23]

yeah theres loads things you can do like that. just make sure everything is sterile and you have some way of measuring the amount of yeast you have once you're done

what I would prob do is use the whole vial in a starter for a beer then once the beer has fermented out having used the starter- wash the yeast well and store in numerous bottles. one vial should nearly do you indefinitely if you keep it clean, keep good records etc

[mr.drankin]

What way do you measure the yeast? 

Does each kind of yeast strain really make that much of a difference on your finished beer?

[matthewdick23]

yes, yeast is huge. will change the beer completely

i make sure its washed well, so there is as little other crap in the yeast as possible, then measure by volume in a beer bottle. that way i can try and have roughly the same amount of yeast as I would in a vial. makes yeast starter calculations easier

[mr.drankin]

Do you no if I can make a starter, stick it in the fridge for a day or 2 and then use it???

[matthewdick23]

yeah, thats wot I do. couple of things though

dont stick it in the fridge until visible signs of fermentation are done
sticking it in the fridge will allow the yeast to drop out and kinda layer at the bottom. it means u can decant most of the wort on top of the yeast away and just pitch mainly yeast into your beer
if you're gonna do this, let the yeast come back upto room temp, or as close to pitchin temp as possible before you pitch

[DEMPSEY]

What way do you measure the yeast? 

Does each kind of yeast strain really make that much of a difference on your finished beer?

Absulutelly,yessy,deffo,a lager or is it larger needs a starter 3 times bigger.