Beer Forum

Stupid question alert:

Can you physically damage yeast?

Say if I added dry yeast to a screw top bottle, added water, screwed the lid down and shook the hell out of it mix it up and rehydrate ... is there a danger of damaging the yeast through it being bumped about?

Like I say, sounds like a silly question, but I've never read anything one way or the other.

I doubt you could hurt the yeast but it's probably unnecesary to "shake the hell out it". I swirl it one way then the other until it falls into solution. I have had to shake the hell out of and bang on the contertop White Labs viles to dislodge the yeast plug. They seem fine after the ride.
for life!

Shaking it up like that won't hurt it a bit. I did read someplace quite a while ago that it is possible to damage yeast on a stir plate if it is turned up way too high for an extended period of time. Even that would be hard to do since you would probably throw the stir bar before you got anywhere near that point. On a stirplate a barely visible whirlpool is all you need so no worries on that. When doing a starter in a jar, give it a real good shake for 10 seconds or so to get some good foam and then just swirl it every now and then. Leave it in a spot that you pass by frequently during the day so you can just give it a swirl every time you walk by. This way you don't forget about it.

Wayne

yeah, you can damage them.

As bug said, on a stirplate -even just for too long as eventually it can sort of "grind them up" by squishing them between the bar and the base of the container - and you can bust them in a filter by running it at too high a pressure.

But you'd have to shake that bottle pretty damn hard to hurt the wee buggers - so I wouldn't worry at all. Mind you, there's no need for shaking so you can avoid the issue altogether, no?

Chunk wrote:Can you physically damage yeast?

[...] shook the hell out of it mix it up and rehydrate ... is there a danger of damaging the yeast through it being bumped about?
Like I say, sounds like a silly question, but I've never read anything one way or the other.

Absolutely not.

In fact yeasts can survive under tens of thousands of pounds of pressure.

It is not stupid question.

Once while visiting a university physics (Wesleyan) lab to talk to a researcher about an invention he wanted developed I watched him use a 22 caliber blank to shoot bacteria and yeasts into a substrate he was working on. He was doing Crystalography research. I asked how the little bugs could survive being shot out of the barrel of a gun into what was a fairly dense surface. He assured me that they were all just fine. Even showed me micro photographs.

Yes and no. They can be damaged by shaking, but not by hand shaking.

In lab I use a device called a vortex that can shake things at very high speeds. That CAN damage cells if done too fast.

Stop spanking your yeast, or I will call Yeast Protective Services on your ass!


Mylo