Question on saving Conan yeast

did you drink these from the can?

 

There are a few more steps you haven't considered. First, I would save the fourth can for the same reason the President and VP never fly on the same airplane. As @Mag00n alluded to, if you drank from the cans you potentially have some nasty bacteria on the lip of the can, or shudder in the dregs. I would flame the cans (cigarette lighter) to help with the former.

You want to use 1.020 wort for the initial solution, anything more is too hard on the yeast. It is very possible you will never see the act of fermentation. With a small amount of dregs it may start and stop overnight. Try and visually determine the volume of the dregs . . . you want to see this volume increase, that means the yeast are reproducing. Once you know they have started you want to add more wort (300'ish ml) and grow some more. I have done the second step on faith (never seeing a krausen) and still use 1.020 wort. At this point you still don't know how many cells you have. I estimate 1.5 - 2 billion cells per ml but that's a WAG. If you get a krausen, or off-gassing, or noticeable increase in volume then you celebrate. It will be the third step (now 1.030+) before you get enough quantity to measure or do anything with. If you are shooting for something like 200B you'll probably need a fourth step.

Yes, you store them in a glass container in your fridge. Just expect viability to drop off with time and anything over about 2 weeks I would re-start before pitching. Easiest way is to add the yeast to a very large flask and pour off a portion to save for a later brew. If you don't use a yeast calculator, now would be a good time to start. I have successfully harvested Conan but somewhere along the line some bacteria found a home in the precious yeast. That's why you save the fourth can.

 

I still flame the lip or mist a little star san.