Adding extra yeast to a kit beer

[paultr]

My batch of Coopers European Lager has just finished its primary fermentation and will be transferred to my new Freecycle fridge for lagering at the weekend :)

I brewed this with more fermentables than Coopers suggest - I followed the guide by ScottM - this was 1kg sugar and 500g of LME.

The fermentation went well at 17° and took 19 days with a final SG of 1.006.

I am going to do the same kit again and was wondering that considering the extra sugar I used whether there would be any advantage to use some of the live yeast colony I have from the current batch to supplement the dried yeast supplied by Coopers. It seems such a shame to just throw it all away. If so, how much should I add ?

Many thanks

 

[alawlor66430]

If you're gonna put it on straight away just put it right on top of the yeast cake that's there, at least you know it's s good one, just remember and don't put boiling water on the yeast cake though .

 

[graysalchemy]

Personally I would remove the yeast and clean the fv and sterilise before putting another one on top of the old yeast. Infection is a real risk. :thumb:

 

[alawlor66430]

Personally I would remove the yeast and clean the fv and sterilise before putting another one on top of the old yeast. Infection is a real risk. :thumb:

You could do that and also if you wanted you could wash the yeast before pitching it again, I don't know if there's a how to on the forum but there's vids on YouTube showing you how to do this.

 

[fbsf]

If I'm doing this, I tend to sterilise a 2L kilner jar in the oven for 20mins, transfer the trub to that, clean out and re-sterilise the FV, then continue as normal, pitching in the trub from the previous brew instead of the packet yeast.

It tends to go off like a good 'un, but I only tend to do this once as I tend to do AG brews, so the trub contains stuff left over from the boil that I wouldn't want there for more than one brew.

Granted, I could wash it, but haven't got around to doing that yet.

 

[paultr]

Thanks for all the replies

however the question remains - is there any advantage to doing this ?

Cheers :

 

[graysalchemy]

Only in that it will save you money and your beer will get going quicker. :thumb:

A yeast cake is good for using to brew high gravity beers. However it may not be advantagous for soem styles of beer where you want esters produced as these are formed whe the yeast is deviding and growing so if you pitch a large volume of yeast then you will get less of that.

 

[paultr]

Thanks graysalchemy :)

Cost really is not the issue as the new kit will come with new yeast but I think I will try it anyway :)