I’d like to keep some of this yeast growing for a long time (because of seasonal availability). I need a guide for feeding and caring for my culture. I have a stir plate, a one liter erlenmeyer flask, and a foam stopper. Do you simply feed the culture DME solution occasionally? I’d like to rest the stir plate between brew sessions, as my brand may have reliability issues.
My ostensible plan was to pour most of my starter into the wort, then make more starter from what I reserve.
I would create a large starter then chill and decant. You could keep that in a few mason jars then use those for your starters. When you have had them for a while or are running out make another big starter and keep more.
Keep where? In the fridge?
yep, as close to freezing as possible.
It really depends on how much time and expense you want to put into it. If you want to go high-tech you could plate and freeze yeast cultures and grow them up each time from a small cell count. Under this approach you need some equipment but you can keep the yeast going indefinitely. Or there are ways to freeze balls of yeast … never tried it but an internet search would find a few websites talking about it. Or if you want to go low budget you can just keep the yeast cake in a mason jar or water bottle in the fridge and grow up starters each time. This approach is less reliable and won’t last as long, but with diligence and occasional use you can probably get a year or more out of your yeast packet.
