Keeping yeast culture alive?

[gijoe985]

If I wanted to go "all out" (moreso at least) and get some sourdough cultures for my yeast, will it take a lot of effort to keep it usable? If I only make a pizza 2-3 times a month? I would not use it much otherwise. I just want to try it really bad, but I don't want to spend money on something I can't use for very long.

[Matthew]

If I wanted to go "all out" (moreso at least) and get some sourdough cultures for my yeast, will it take a lot of effort to keep it usable? If I only make a pizza 2-3 times a month? I would not use it much otherwise. I just want to try it really bad, but I don't want to spend money on something I can't use for very long.

It depends on the viability of your culture.  It is a bit of work to activate it but once it's active its viability depends on the frequency of feedings.  You can definitely use it 2-3 times per month without any issues if you feed it weekly.

Matt

[GotRocks]

The culture samples that I sent out to tranman and another forum member (Sorry, I forgot who you are) come from a culture that I keep dormant in my refrigerator for months on end with no feedings or special treatment. It has been handed down through several generations and it is like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going.

if I use it 2-3 times a year I would be surprised. And it is a very active and flavorful culture.

There are not as much work as you expect, Just keep them refrigerated, and out of direct light.
Do not use metal containers or utensils and it should be fine.

Well, maybe it is just my culture that seems to be so resilent to abuse, so I could be wrong.