Need yeast quick! Here are my options...

[jceg316]

I'm doing a brew tomorrow but don't have any packs of yeast. I have some yeast harvested from previous batches sitting in my fridge, but they've been there for over 2 weeks, so I would need to make a starter.

I have a couple of beers which have almost finished fermenting (but not quite).

My options are:

Assuming all is well with the fermenting beers, Could I rack one of them to 2ndary and take the yeast from the bottom? Would this have any bad effects? I can't see why it would.

I have a stirplate so can make a starter relatively quickly. Whilst a day may not be enough to make a starter could I pour all the yeast from one of my jars into a starter.

What would be the better option?

Not brewing is not an option.

Thanks.

 

[Gerryjo]

Use the yeast in the primary after transfer.Shall be fine as there are numerous people that do this.
I collected a Belgian yeast last night which I Shall reuse and have a cascade SMaSH on at the moment purely for this purpose with Liberty Bell M36 yeast.

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[henteaser]

I often make a starter the night before brew day, and simply pitch the entire thing the next day.

As long as you can get the starter on a stir plate past the lag phase (first 15-20 hours) and you can clearly see it's fermenting, this can often really kick-start the primary fermentation (yeast are straight in to the "Exponential Growth" phase).

Or, you could also make a starter today, brew tomorrow, then pitch on Thursday?

 

[MyQul]

If you can get the yeast from your fridge going, you should be fine pitching after about 24 hours.

Another option would be to no chill. This means you give yourself up to a further 48 hours for he yeast to be on the stir plat. Just chuck your wort near boiling wort into the FV without chilling it (having made sure you've gotten rid of any hop material) Then cover with cling film held on with a big elastic band. I routinely wait 24-48 hours after brewing for the wort to cool down before pitching.

 

[jceg316]

Thank you everyone for your input. I think I will make a starter tonight and pitch accordingly.

 

[jceg316]

What I ended up doing with this batch was using the yeast from the other batch. It's almost done fermenting now, I tried some and it tasted great.

But I made the same mistake again, got to brewday and realised I didn't have any yeast. I went ahead with the brew anyway and made a starter in the meantime. After a day or so I pitched straight from my stirplate into the brew and it started bubbling away in no time!

 

[GlentoranMark]

I'd have just pitched my beer onto the trub of the last one. Done this several times with no problems. The only caveat is if your doing a clone.

 

[jceg316]

I'd have just pitched my beer onto the trub of the last one. Done this several times with no problems. The only caveat is if your doing a clone.

I have done that before, but the reason I couldn't do it this time is because the first beer still needed to ferment and the FV it was in was not big enough for the batch