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I'm relatively new to home brewing and am enjoying brewing 1 gallon batches. I have been using dry yeast and can get about 4 batches from a single packet. I would, however, like to be able to use the wider variety available via liquid yeast but I don't want to waste a yeast packet designed for 5 gallons by throwing away what I don't need for 1 gallon.

How can I seperate and store the liquid yeast I don't use for use in later batches?

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  • Can you scale up to 2 or 3 one gallon fermentation containers?
    – baka
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 1:46
  • I actually do have multiple fermenters. The problem that I am trying to solve though with one gallon batches is avoiding the time and equipment required for mashing and boiling larger batches.
    – CLudwig
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 11:03

1 Answer 1

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Use half a tube of liquid yeast per 1 gallon of 1.050OG beer. You are probably thinking "but I get more uses out of one pack of dry"....well you were probably under pitching the amount of yeast for optimal performance.

Check out this pitching rate calculator if you haven't done so before:
Mr. Malty Pitching Rate

When you are done you can just recap the vial and store it in the fridge. Nice thing is that it seals closed better than a dried yeast pack closes.

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  • Thanks, that makes sense. Would I just divide it out by weight into a sanitized dish? Also, in following the link you gave it looks like I might be able to break it into thirds...maybe with a starter. If I could get three batches out of a single package that would certainly be cost effective enough for me.
    – CLudwig
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 11:08
  • Well you sort of are making starters already, but I suppose you could scale it bace to like a 12 oz starter. Not sure if you'd get any useful growth out of it though. That's why the calculator says you can just pitch 0.4 vial. That is plenty of yeast for one gallon. As far as measuring it, seeing how you need 0.4 and you would use 0.5 it would be say to just eye ball it and pour. Or invest in a pipet setup and measure it volume wise. If you poured it into a dish to weigh it (not recommended with liquid), you'd probably lose 30% of when you dumped it out.
    – brewchez
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 13:56

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