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Yes, I have saved tons of money by growing my own yeast. It just takes a little planning and time. Slants or glycol storage are going to be your best bet. Get a pressure cooker to acts as a makeshift auto-clave for sterilization. With some yeasts coming in at $6-$9 a vial, this will help you get the most out of that money. In fact I have pulled proprietary ...

A krausen is created mostly from coagulating proteins and high yeast activity. You may still get a krausen at ale temps with the lager yeast due to the level of activity, but in general it's hit and miss how much yeast you get from top cropping, even more so with a bottom fermenting strain. In your shoes, I would divide the smack pack yeast between two ...

The bottom layer contains more trub, but does also contain yeast. The top layer is formed after the majority of the trub has already settled, so it's more or less pure yeast on top. You don't have too much - actually the opposite. It's best to make a starter - even though it looks like a lot of yeast, it will be vastly underpitched in a 5 gallon brew. I'd ...

You don't necessarily need to make a starter if you are re-pitching within a few weeks because the viability of the yeast will still be pretty high. But, if you store the yeast for much time you should always make a starter. This ensures that the yeast is still viable and it will help ensure the yeast are active so you don't have a long lag time during ...

What is a "good" amount of yeast? Did you use a starter/re-pitch? Regardless I've scores of batches with White Labs WLP810 (which should be pretty much the same strain) and conclude it may take patience... When I lost one of my lagering units, I decided to re-visit this yeast. I like the temperature flexibility/tolerance and often fermented at 59-60F. I ...

No, there is no danger in leaving it longer and getting more separation. If anything, it means you get even more yeast, although the amount is only a few percent. If there is a lot of trub, then you may want to pour off the yeast into a different vessel to separate it from the trub. The trub falls quickest, so this will be at the bottom of your jar. Store ...

I don't think there is any danger in the timing, but if your sample contained a lot of trub, having it all settle out with the majority of the yeast defeats the purpose of the wash. If you can see two distinct layers formed in the bottom you likely have a lot of trub in there and I'd suggest agitating things again so you can pour off the yeast while it's ...

Yes, apparently you can. There's a recipe for it here: http://marmitelover.blogspot.no/2011/04/how-to-make-your-own-marmite.html The author says she uses 'top fermentation from a brewery' - which I imagine is the krausen, although on a homebrew scale I wonder if that gives enough yeast. She also mentions that it doesn't taste like the original - lacking ...

I have been reusing my yeast for several years now. I don't do it correctly, but it has worked out for me. I would like to share what I actually do, and you can balance that against all the really great information regarding the proper care and feeding of yeast. The only limiting factor that I really care about is autolysis, as this will create formaldehyde ...

I have not made any cider yet, but there should be no problem in reusing the yeast with one exception: If you have so much fermentables that the cider would finish sweet, you have killed the yeast, so that the cake only contains dead yeast (I am thinking of having a potential alcohol level that is higher than what the yeast can tolerate). Most yeasts can ...

When in doubt, start it out. All you'll end up with is healthier yeast. Although there are arguments that trub is beneficial to yeast, I'd take the healthy section and grow it up. That being said; many times I've just re-used yeast without separating and no starter with splendid results. However, some caveats: 1) I always made certain there was ...

Look at this page http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrates.cfm by wyeast to estimate the amount of yeast you have. If it were me I would split that into 4 smaller containers, and do a starter from one of them for my next batch, while trying to be close to the amounts determined by the wyeast link.

You still get Krausen, but I wouldn't harvest from the top. I'd suggest scooping some up in a sanitized mason jar and making a starter from there after racking the steam beer to secondary. You could search google washing yeast if needed, but you should be fine from the starter. You won't get a lot of steam like flavors from that, but a huge amount of cells ...

In theory if you can accurately measure your density and weights its possible. But in most real world applications your two measures will be contaminated by protein, wort, alcohol and hop debris. That will make an accurate measurment impossible, albeit a scientifically sound assumption. Yeast also aren't always the same size they swell and shrink a bit as ...

If you can get a particularly clean sample that is just wort or water and naturally compacted yeast then this should work, at least if calibrated initially against a cell count. The trouble is that most slurries from previous ferments contain a fair amount of trub, which can be difficult to account for. If you have a conical, then cropping from the ...