Liquid Mesophillic Starter Culture - Freezing Shelf Life & Thawed Consistency?

[Miss Muffet]

I made up some starter culture using my suppliers instructions, which was to incubate 1/4tsp of culture in 100ml of UHT milk until I had a yogurt consistency.  I did this but the smallest volume of UHT I could purchase was 200ml so I just made up that amount (with 1/2 tsp of culture).  All this went according to plan, & I successfully used 100ml of the culture to make some feta (which as an aside I was very proud of  ) 

However, I had 100ml left over so I thought I could just freeze it and use it in my next batch.  I have just defrosted it and it is seems to have lost all body and appears quite watery.  Why might this have happened and more importantly can I use it?  Or does the fact that it no longer looks like yogurt mean that it won't work as a starter?

[Bowl]

Hmm, I'm not sure why it has gone watery - it may be because the UHT milk?

Here's a link to some mesophilic starter culture that you can freeze 

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0

[Sailor Con Queso]

Being watery will have no effect on its value as a starter culture.

[Miss Muffet]

Really??  So it doesn't indicate that the culture has broken down then??  I wasn't too sure whether I could use it so I made another batch but does this mean I can successfully freeze & later use the remnants of this new batch? 

Thanks for that Bowl.  I had seen that link but I wanted to know whether I could successfully freeze the cultures I have on hand.  Buttermilk isn't the easiest thing to locate here sometimes.

[Gina]

I use frozen cultures without problem, and they are never the same firm consistency as when they first went into the freezer. Freezing changes the texture of many things.

[mcfly]

I read in my book that its best not to keep frozen buttermilk starter for more than a month? I'm not sure if this is the reason but I just thought I'd mention..

[linuxboy]

That's a different issue, that's about culture viability. It's also an overly aggressive estimate. A properly frozen culture made from properly prepared starter will last 3-6 months without problems.

[Miss Muffet]

Excellent!  Thanks for that.  I shan't be so hasty to toss it next time.  And I will freeze the new starter I made with confidence.

Cheers