Repackaging yeast

Sometimes, it is expensive being a homebrewer! I have mentioned the price of hops before. But yeast is another example where buying it in small amounts can be very expensive. For example, an 11.5g sachet of Fermentis US-05 is £2.75. But a 500g packet of the same yeast is £38.51 – the equivalent to a third of the price!

So buying the bigger packet really is a bit of a no-brainer! Particularly if you use it regularly. But the question is how do you break the 500g packet up into 20g sachets (enough for a 23L brew) and store them?

• I have vacuum packed individual sachets of 20g. You can buy vacuum sealing machines for about £30 on Amazon. Here’s the one that I have;
• Ten of these individual sachets are then vacuum packed into a large bag and stored in the freezer.
• Then I transfer some of the packets from the freeze and store them in the fridge before use.

I reckon using this approach that the yeast should easily last until it’s use by date (listed as October 2022). As US-05 is one of the yeasts that I use regularly, I reckon that these 5 individual sachets will be used up within 6-9 months. Let’s see what happens. I’ll keep this page updated.