Vacuum sealing harvested yeast

Looking at this video I had the idea of vacuum sealing yeast that I harvest from my beer batches to better protect it from bacteria/mold.

My plan is to rinse the yeast with boiled (sanitized) water and store it in that water (so it won't produce CO2).

Since I'm not a biologist I'm wondering if that is a good idea, if anyone has done that before and if there are any downsides.

In special, I would like to know if such a setup would make it easier to anaerobic bacteria to infect my harvested yeast (which I would like to avoid).

Topic harvest bacteria yeast homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

I don't think this will make it easier for anaerobic bacteria - they are not really affected by the presence or lack of oxygen, and since there is little food available I doubt they would propagate anyway.

I don't think it will do any harm, but you may want to try harvesting two jars yeast at the same time both with and without a vacuum to see if there really is any improvement in shelf life.

It's possible to have yeast remain uncontaminated for a long time without a vacuum - this brewer states he's stored yeast for 17 months in the fridge without issue - but of course he doesn't mention how many (if any) he's lost to contamination so this is anecdotal at best.

Homebrewing is a highly personal process - if it works for you, no reason not to do it!

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