Looking to discuss yeasts and starters [Shower thought I'd like to discuss]

[Twisted]

[Insert salutation appropriate to time of reading] All,

I've recently had a shower thought I'd like to share and discuss.
After watching several videos on making sour dough (yeast) starters for breads and reading that a starter can be spooned out thinly on a baking sheet and then dried to create dried yeast it struck me that it may be possible to do this with a wine yeast, so I thought I'd come here and get discussion going as to whether this is possible with wine yeast. Just for fun here's a daft scenario.

Scenario:
The Zombie Hoard or which ever doomsday scenario you like is ravishing the UK, it's survivable but things will be rough, online shopping won't exist and I'm hidden away in my little cabin in the woods. Before the schism I had a few brews going and hearing my airlock bubble I grin knowing I don't have to face this sober, I have a few tasty home brews to keep me going... for a while anyway but what then? I have enough of my [Brand Name] express yeast compound for maybe 2 more musts and I have lots of flour and all the other things needed to keep me going until I can get some crops planted and other food stuffs sorted.

The Question(s):

• Do I use 1 of my precious musts worth of my [Brand Name] express yeast compound, a little flour and some water to try and make a starter, as if I were making a sourdough starter, spread it thinly on a baking sheet and let it dry thus increasing my dried yeast inventory?
  • Would this actually work?
    • If Yes: Like a sourdough starter could the live yeast be kept alive (pseudo)indefinitely by feeding it thus giving a never ending supply of [Brand Name] express yeast compound?

I understand that the compounds/additives used in the [Brand Name] express yeast compound will be consumed but the idea is to salvage the high alcohol tolerance yeast cultures for future musts.

Thank you all in advance for your thoughts :)

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Can I dry brewing yeast ?

If it was Kveik yeast definitely, I dried a load and it's in the freezer and works brilliantly. I'd make do with that as it has high alcohol tolerance and temp tolerance come the apocalypse. Can also just be kept dry on the shelf.
Of course another way to store your wine yeast would be to bottle the cloudy dregs and then make a starter with that come doomsday.
Again no need for starter with Kveik, just put the flakes in.
If I was going to keep wine yeast I'd do the same as I do for beer yeast and take the slurry let it settle, pour off the juice, top up with distilled water,keep in fridge.
Loads of youtube about how to save yeast from beer. Not suggesting making slides as your freezer will fail in the zombie apocalypse.

Flour has other yeasts and bugs in ( hence how you make sourdough starter in first place ). Totally bad idea to try and propagate a wine plant this way.

 

[Twisted]

Can I dry brewing yeast ?

If it was Kveik yeast definitely, I dried a load and it's in the freezer and works brilliantly. I'd make do with that as it has high alcohol tolerance and temp tolerance come the apocalypse. Can also just be kept dry on the shelf.
Of course another way to store your wine yeast would be to bottle the cloudy dregs and then make a starter with that come doomsday.
Again no need for starter with Kveik, just put the flakes in.
If I was going to keep wine yeast I'd do the same as I do for beer yeast and take the slurry let it settle, pour off the juice, top up with distilled water,keep in fridge.
Loads of youtube about how to save yeast from beer. Not suggesting making slides as your freezer will fail in the zombie apocalypse.

Flour has other yeasts and bugs in ( hence how you make sourdough starter in first place ). Totally bad idea to try and propagate a wine plant this way.

Thanks for the great response.

I'll need to look into Kveik. I hadn't even thought about saving the slurry, I had assumed that by the end of a wine ferment all the yeast would have pretty much died off. My logic(ish) to creating a starter was that the flour would replace the 'compounds' to some degree and give the stronger yeast more to feed on once the weaker yeast dies off during the ehhh... startering process, kind of a survival of the fittest scenario.

You said to top up the de-juiced slurry with distilled water and keep it in a fridge, could it instead be spread and dried at this point?

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Last wine kit I did, I took the half full bottle of yeast in the fermentasaurus after the other wine was bottled. I just tipped that in instead of opening the next wine kit packet of yeast. It went like a rocket. Pitching on yeast cakes ie beer out wort in is quite common.

You want the yeast to go into stasis in the fridge so no food. it just waits to be woken up then with food and oxygen when you make your starter.

All processes with yeast preserving need to be very aseptic.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Different yeast strains respond very differently to drying, but if they're available dried commercially then they're probably OK (apart from Lallemand New England). Wine strains are generally better-adapted than strains that have spent the last few centuries being spoon-fed in a brewery.

But in a no-refrigeration world, I'd keep the original packets as backups and then just use yeast from lees as the start of the next brew, yeast is generally happier kept wet and hopefully shuld be kept away from infections in a bottle.

And at least with wine, you can always wild-ferment.