When I do a starter with a fresh pack of yeast do a batch then harvest, is the yeast I harvest concidered 1st or 2nd gen?
When using harvested yeast do you calculate viability from the batch the fresh yeast went into or from the batch that generation was harvest from ?
Not positive about the first. As to the second question, count from when you harvested that particular generation.
Call the yeast coming out of the fermenter Generation 1.
I’ve never concerned myself with ‘viability’. I store the yeast in a mason jar. When I want to use it again I make a starter and spoon 2-4 scoops out of the jar. Works for me.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]Call the yeast coming out of the fermenter Generation 1.
I’ve never concerned myself with ‘viability’. I store the yeast in a mason jar. When I want to use it again I make a starter and spoon 2-4 scoops out of the jar. Works for me.[/quote]
So the first harvest is generation 1 then when I pitch that and harvest I’ve harvested generation 2?
Sounds good to me.
Don’t try to over think it.
I am so new at this it is pathetic, but am trying new things, so here is my 2 pennies;
The dry pack is Gen 0.
The first harvest from gen 0 is gen 1.
And so on…
I have about a liter of Danstar Windsor in the fridge that I just harvested and washed from the 1 gallon Whitehouse honey ale I did. Looks god, but I am short on glassware, so i have it in two laboratory jars I have. The second one I filled from my wash vessel looks like I may have got a little of the hoppy trub in there, and I am thinking of dumping it out.
Digging up an oldie as my question is similar:
Let’s say I have a 2nd gen in a mason jar that is going on a few months old, so I freshen it up with a starter. Do you now call it 3rd gen or keep it at 2nd gen?
My 2¢ not that it matters the vial is 1st generation. The starter is then 2nd so what you harvest from your beer is 3rd. Unless you do a two step starter then it’s 4th. I go many generations without any problems. I hardly ever do starters. Don’t see any advantage of making a starter from saved yeast .
My 2¢ not that it matters. To me a generation is how many times the yeast went through the stress to ferment a beer. Fermentation stresses and subsequent harvesting method may have more of an affect, if any, on the yeast more than fermenting a starter wort.
The yeast propagated with a new pack of yeast and the over build harvested from the starter is generation 1. Yeast harvested from a fermented beer is generation 2. When this yeast is harvested from another fermented beer it is generation 3.
I have so much harvested yeast that I’ve given up trying to track generations. I’ll rebuild a 4 month, or so, old yeast If I have only one container of that yeast strain. I’ll then store this yeast from the fresh starter in two containers in case one shows infection.
That all makes perfect sense. Thanks!
I agree with you @flars about the stress factor but every time the yeast reproduce the result is a new generation Technically. It’s birds and bees
