5 Tips for Storing Repitched Yeast in Yeast Brinks

For brewers who brew on a larger scale, repitching yeast and storing certain varieties of yeast for a long time is a crucial element to their long-term success. You can get away with storing yeast in simple containers when you’re just starting out, but eventually, you’ll need that extra level of consistency. That’s where a yeast brink comes in. Here we’re going to give you a few tips for storing repitched yeast in yeast brinks so you can get the most out of them.

Never Fill to the Top

All yeast slurries contain a certain amount of carbon dioxide that you’ll need to deal with. If you’re putting your yeast in a yeast brink, it’s important that you never fill it all the way to the top. Over time, that carbon dioxide will come out of the yeast, usually as foam. This extra foam, and even just the yeast moving as the carbon dioxide escapes, means that you need to leave some room on top.

Keep Your Brinks Cold

To protect your repitched yeast as much as possible, you want to keep your yeast brinks quite cold. While they don’t need to be freezing, you do still want to keep them at a colder temperature than you would keep them at when they’re in the middle of fermenting. Somewhere in the range of 32 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit should help maintain and extend the lifespan of your yeast.

Never Expose to Oxygen Before Use

When yeast cells become dormant, you want to keep them that way until you’re ready to use them again, or else they can die earlier than you’d like. What triggers yeast cells to no longer remain dormant is exposure to oxygen. Once you’ve moved your yeast into a yeast brink for storage, you never want to open it up and expose it to any oxygen until the moment you’ll use it again.

Don’t Pressurize Too Much

An important tip for using yeast brinks to store repitched yeast is to not go overboard with pressurizing the brink. A pressurized yeast brink can help maintain the condition of the yeast for a longer period of time, but too much pressure is also an issue. A large amount of pressure can choke out your yeast cells and cause them to die early. In terms of psi, you don’t want to go any further than five to keep it pressurized.

Always Clean and Sanitize After Use

Yeast is highly reactive to its surroundings once it finds its way inside, including the yeast brink. Anything left over from a previous strain’s storage cycle can throw off your yeast immensely. Cleaning and thoroughly sanitizing your yeast brinks after use will make sure that nothing gets left behind to contaminate your next repitching effort.

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