harvesting yeast

[happy jack]

Hello all.
I have just brewed 25 litres of Timothy Taylor Landlord style beer, and, as I have done so before, pitched Safale So-4 yeast. I have also used Nottingham and Windsor but would now like to try my luck,( when I knock up another brew ) ,with a Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire ale smack pack yeast.
My question is:
How many bottles of yeast can I recycle/harvest from the trub at the bottom or the fermenting bucket to use for my next batch of ale ?
Many thanks.
Jack.

 

[bobsbeer]

Depends on how big your bottles are, but you can reuse most of the trub.

 

[Mark1964]

depends how much trub is in the fv when its done. Tip it into a sterile pop bottle and reuse it next time. You need to make a starter with either dme or wort 4 or 5 days before you brew

 

[happy jack]

Sorry to ask, but I,ve only ever used dry yeast with all my brews. How much volume of yeast starter is needed for 25 ltr of ale?

 

[RobWalker]

Mix with 500g dme in a demi john, ferment, and split into 8 mini water bottles. Boom! 8 starters that you just add 100g dme to a few hours before ferment :)

 

[Hawks]

Or grow the smack pack up first and split it..

 

[happy jack]

Thanks Rob. Brilliant!, that was the answer I was hoping for with my confused question.
Thank you all for your replies.
I shall spend an hour or so in the kitchen and try to perfect the task.

 

[Mark1964]

we use 300g of dme or wort and ferment the yeast in that. The end result should be sufficient to brew 25 litres

 

[happy jack]

Thanks al for the info. I shall experiment in the kitchen

By the way, I,m typing this post with a. Five inch tablet computer, as my laptop is busted and as a result of big thumbs and a tiny touch keypad, have managed to send two posts on the same subject and am having to hop between the both to read replies to my questions, a well as making multiple typing errors! This stupid keypad is just about driving my round the twist :cry:
thanks again for your replies.
Jack.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

depends how much trub is in the fv when its done. Tip it into a sterile pop bottle and reuse it next time. You need to make a starter with either dme or wort 4 or 5 days before you brew

I personally think 4-5 days is way too early. You want to pitched the starter before it starts to produce alcohol, but at its premium growth stage. This is quite hard to judge, depending on temp, health, 02 etc.

 

[Mark1964]

the yeast is pitched after fermentation has finished in the starter. After fermentation has finished ie no more sugars to eat it then will lay dormant but hungry for more sugars. This way when its pitched into your beer its off very fast fermenting again

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I think youve got it wrong...The starter should be pitched after it has used up all the dissloved O2, but before it starts to consume the sugars. This is when the yeast cells are at their upmost.

 

[robsan77]

No need to make a starter with a healthy amount if yeast. Just let it warm up first. Use a starter if its been in the fridge for over a couple of weeks or if small amount.

Check out brewstrong. Search in google. They have a great podcast on repitching yeast.

 

[robsan77]

Sorry, to answer the question it depends on a lot of factors. Generally tho, 100ml is all you need for a repitch so however many 100mls you can get.
Then again however if it sits in the fridge a few weeks you'll need more, or will have to make a starter from it.

Also look at Mr malty .com for pitching rates.

 

[RokDok]

Are you going to bottle your beer ??

If so you can just harvest your yeast from one of your bottles a few days before you brew.

I use the yeast from one bottle of beer and pitch a bit into four separate sterilised milk bottles with some cooled spray malt solution in. After about three days each milk bottle has enough to pitch into 25-30 litres of wort.

RD

 

[johnnyboy1965]

depends how much trub is in the fv when its done. Tip it into a sterile pop bottle and reuse it next time. You need to make a starter with either dme or wort 4 or 5 days before you brew

I personally think 4-5 days is way too early. You want to pitched the starter before it starts to produce alcohol, but at its premium growth stage. This is quite hard to judge, depending on temp, health, 02 etc.

I have now changed my mind on this.... I used to pitch my starter after 24 hrs, but was never happy with the lag time (usually 18-24hrs). I tried mark1964 method of making a starter 4-5 days in advance (I went for 4 days) and pitched into wort at 20 oC. The lag time was 12hrs. Now, this was a different strain of yeast from what I usually use, but it did ferment out to 1.010 within 4 days. Ill now try marks method using my usual yeast and post results.
Lessons to be learnt....jsyt because it works for you, dont overlook anyone elses ideas.

 

[Good Ed]

I would recommend Mr Malty for the amount of yeast to pitch http://www.mrmalty.com/ and to understand how to grow yeast there is no substitute for Chris White & Jamil Zainashelf's book Yeast; you have to understand starter volumes, inoculation rates and yield factors to get an idea for what you are doing. However if you take it that 1 vial of healthy White Lab yeast contains ~100 billion cells then adding this to a 2L starter (200g DME with water to 2L) will yield 200 billion cells which is good for a standard ale, however if you add 1 vial to a 1L starter you will get 150 billion cells, and to a 5L starter you will get 300 billion cells; there is an optimum yield factor if you get my drift :geek:

Now there are two ways to pitch a yeast starter;

1) wait until the yeast consumes all the starter wort sugars, let it settle out and decant the spent wort (which you don't want to pollute your beer with anyway), and then add some cooled wort from half way through your boil to wake up your yeast before pitching. This is the correct method when you are using a starter volume greater than 5% of your brew length

2) pitch the starter as soon as the growth phase is mostly complete and the yeast are still at the height of activity. If you are going to pitch a starter at high kraeusen it is best to keep this close to the temperature of the main batch, and also to have control over the temperature of your starter, and also this is only suitable for smaller starter volumes

however the overiding factor in growing yeast is for healthy yeast, treat with TLC :)

 

[Manicflippy]

Depends on how big your bottles are, but you can reuse most of the trub.

I'm curious.. Considering this, I'm wondering, how long can I store yeast and what are the optimal conditions for yeast health? Can you just keep re-har vesting as your stocks deplete? Or does this lead to problems (beyond the mrs complaining of misuse of fridge space)?

 

[PD]

Have a watch of these two youtube offerings about harvesting yeasts and making a yeast starter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYUFJ4bPD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhFerNTwbQ

 

[Manicflippy]

Have a watch of these two youtube offerings about harvesting yeasts and making a yeast starter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYUFJ4bPD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhFerNTwbQ

Thanks for links, very good. I'm gonna give this a go when my next batch finishes up. Read about freezing too I might store half for short term
In fridge and freeze a few for down the line