Building up yeast to store..am i missing anything obvious?

Lately i’ve been doing a lot of SMaSH brews and using WLP001. I finally realized that I’ve been wasting a lot of time/money on building yeast starters out of a yeast vial for every batch.

I brew maybe every few weeks if I’m lucky, so in the mean time what I’d like to do is the following.

  • buy new vial of WLP001
  • make yeast starter out of new yeast
  • split starter into 2 and create new starter out of each
  • split each one more time to create 4
  • end up with 4 decent sized starters to store (decant off any excess wort)
  • few days before next brew day, pull one of the 4 out and create a fresh starter

I don’t see how this would be any different from your basic yeast washing from a yeast cake, in fact I would think it would probably be cleaner yeast. Only downside i’m seeing is time/effort

So my question is this. Aside from basic sanitation, am I missing anything? Is something that is pretty common?

You could do that or if you brew every few weeks you could just plan your brew day when you’re going to rack the finished beer off the yeast cake, pour out half the yeast cake to save and rack your new wort in on the used cake. I do it all the time as do lots of other lazy(efficient) brewers like me.

You can also extend the next brew date by leaving a protective layer of beer over the yeast cake in the fermentor. I don’t think a week would be to long to store the yeast this way. Loosens up the schedule a little if it is necessary. Still has the efficiency factor.

You can also extend the next brew date by leaving a protective layer of beer over the yeast cake in the fermentor. I don’t think a week would be to long to store the yeast this way. Loosens up the schedule a little if it is necessary. Still has the efficiency factor.[/quote]
I’ve actually gone 3 weeks with about half inch of beer on top and had no issues.

I agree with the above. Just brew and save. A brewed beer is nothing but a big starter except you get some beer to drink. I only make starters for a new yeast that I dont have in my fridge.