Bottling Yeast Cake?

[studio1]

The last couple of batched I have bottled (using a bottle filler of the tap of the fermenter), once I am down to the yeast cake, I have swirled up the contents and filled into a sterilised bottled which I have capped off and popped in the fridge. Would this be a good storage method for the yeast? I have read that the best storage for yeast is under beer, so thought this would be a great way of saving some yeast after each batch.
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I plan on pitching to a starter after pouring off the beer from the settled yeast

[James P]

Well I would be concerned about the abilities or dedication of those brewers who have a hard time getting their gear clean.Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and if you want to be a brewing God you should learn to clean..... VERY well. A little bit of vinegar + water then bleach works, as does no name no scent napisan and hot water! (Some times you should just throw the fermenter out and get a new one!)

Harvesting yeast is no harder than steeping grains, and if you reuse 4 times, your cost per brew decreases from $25 to $6. Or if you do slants the limit is damn near endless!

[Dai]

Interesting thread here. I have tried doing as studio 1 suggests but had no joy at all: it was the cake from a S-04 yeast and I saved about 250ml of it. When I came to repitching, I took the bottle out of the fridge and it countinually gushed after opening. I put it in a larger jug, which stopped the gushing, but it smelt a bit funny (but I had added a teaspoon of cane sugar as I was told this would kick start it again) so I gave it a wee taste and got a bit of an upset stomach! Got chicken, so biffed it out and pitched a new sachet. They are only $5 or so, so no dramas. Moved onto liquid yeasts, which are a bit pricier and hard to get hold of, so I was keen to reuse. Now, when I make the starter I save a small amount of that instead of pitching it all which is working great. I have used one of my yeasts for three generations and can not really tell any difference between brews, so may be I am not picking up too many off flavours? (which I imagine would be more likely if you save the yeast cake after primary?). Not too keen to reuse >3-4 times though, but luckily I work at an university, so took my strains to the microbiology department and they streaked them out onto slants and are currently being stored in the -20C freezer!

As for dipping my nuts into the brew: I can imagine I would have some funky yeasts festering away down there, but while I can afford it, I'll stick to buying the real McCoy; although, could be tempted if I get into brewing lambics...

[Reviled]

ROFL, "Balls Deep Lambic Grand Cru" :oP hahahaha