Home Brewing Tips and Techniques
Can you or someone else(TM) please elaborate on how this works? How do you store it (refridgerated? frozen?) and how long will it stay alive? How do you bring it back to life before pitching? I assume you cannot bring the ABV up to a decent amount without adding fresh yeast to it? Also, do you boil it or something to make sure it doesnt contaminate your next batch?
Don't freeze it. After I rack beer out of the fermenter, I just flip it over and pour the yeast into a clean jar, label it as described, and stick it in the refrigerator. It goes dormant at that point. How long it will last depends on the strain, and how many uses it has. I go 5 generations. Some of my strains have lasts almost 1 year, others barely made it 2 months.
As for bringing up the ABV without adding fresh yeast, actually, I never do that. I ALWAYS make a starter and add that to the yeast slurry. If I have a fresh Wyeast smack pack to use, I will make a starter for that, but as for reusing a strain, nope... I just combine it with a starter.
I boil the starter ingredients, cool it down to 80F or less, then mix it with the slurry, let it sit at room temperature for 2-5 days to colonize and increase strength, then pitch.
Hopefully webby doesn't mind me posting this link... here are a bunch of yeast videos.
http://www.freebrewingvideos.com/yeast.shtml
Here is some random advice for those who are either thinking about getting into brewing, are novices looking for ideas, or those who just want some new ways of thinking when it comes to making beer.
EXPERIMENT. Just because you have perfected a recipe, or like one that you found, who says it can't use some twists or just be improved? Change some grain, switch out some hops, add them at different times, try dry hopping your beer. ALWAYS experiment. Ever tried an herbal beer? I made my first batch last fall and it was great.
WHY ASK OTHERS FOR APPROVAL? I never understood why new or novice brewers post recipes and ask others "does this look any good?" What does it matter? Try it. I had a few brewers try and talk me out of making my herbal and fruit beers, but I did it anyway. I'm glad I did it. Who cares if others approve of what you want to make? YOU are brewing it, they aren't.
PARANOIA. I have not seen it much lately, but a couple of years ago here, I remember a few novices who felt they HAD to STERILIZE every single thing. Why? I have not been to or heard of any brewery of any size that sterilizes equipment. Star San and Iodophor are not sterilizers. They are sanitizers. But there brewers who absolutely paranoid about having a hospital grade clean room to brew beer. You are making beer, not performing open heart surgery. The best advice I can give is to clean and sanitize your absolute best, then not worry any more. But as for general brewing paranoia, it is common to be fearful when starting out... "am I doing this right?"... but don't be paranoid. The worst you will have a bad (but drinkable) batch, so learn from your mistakes.
COMPARE ANSWERS. Everybody gives bad advice at some point. If you are questioning an answer someone gave you, search the web for your question. I've had even a homebrew store owner give me really bad advice, but fortunately, I already knew he was wrong because I read the answer before. No brewer, not even Charlie Papazian, can know everything. Although I met one store owner who *thought* he did. Talk about arrogant.
BE WILLING TO FAIL. You will make batches that are excellent, and some that suck. We all do. Take good notes! If you aren't willing to accept failure once in a while, whether a batch is skunked, didn't quite turn out right, or was a complete disaster, then don't brew. Just like being in business... if you aren't willing to take risks, don't start a business. In my years of brewing, I've had to throw out a couple batches, and had many others that didn't turn out like I expected. Learn from it. Even the professionals make mistakes.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO GET HELP. No matter how smart any homebrewer or professional is, every single one of us started out the same as you did. We weren't born knowing all grain brewing, using salts, understanding the terminology, how a mash turn works, and so forth. Pick other folks brains. Over the past few years, I have never had any brewer who would not help. Most are happy to pass on knowledge. If you have any doubt about something, ask for help first.
BE UNIQUE WITH YOUR BEER. Why copy someone else? Maybe someone in a homebrew club makes a killer amber, oatmeal stout, or fruity IPA. I've seen other brewers try and copy it. Why? The first guy is known for his creation. Come up with something that you will be known for. Don't know how? Time and experience will teach you this. Learn your grain, hops, and yeast strains, then experiment.
GET USED TO BEING A JANITOR. That's pretty much what brewing is all about. 80-90% cleaning. If you hate cleaning, either get real accustomed to being a brewing janitor. or don't get started.
EXCUSES. I have spoken to sooooo many folks who want to brew, but they are full of excuses. No time, no place, no drive... either you do or you don't. If you want to brew, if you want to try a new recipe, if you want to experiment, make it happen. I used to invite people over to brew with me, but I found 95% had nothing but excuses of why they couldn't. That means they didn't want it bad enough. So how is this advice? Because coming up with excuses is easier than making it happen. If you want to know how to brew, how you go from grain to glass, create your own beer, it is only going to happen if you make it happen. Nobody else is going to brew it for you.
HAVE FUN. Even with all the cleaning, remembering numbers, times, charts, and other things, and waiting on your beer to finish fermenting, you are in this for fun. I've been involved in the computer industry (long resume) for 25 years, and brewing for 4 years. Making beer gets FAR more attention than knowing computers. I've given a few brewery tours, and women are more interested in learning that than how a computer works. Learn styles, what the difference is, how grain, hops, and yeast work together, and have fun showing others just how smart you are! (Yes it does work!)