Quantities of harvested yeast

[The Goatreich]

After bottling my last brew on Wednesday I collected and washed the yeast cake and split the contents into two 500ml bottles. They've now been in the fridge for a couple of days and I can see the yeast collecting at the bottom of each one. It's not as much as I hoped though.

Is it worth me draining off the top of one and adding them together, or is the amount I can see a fairly good amount? I presume with this little I'd need to have a yeast starter for the next time I use them, which is something I've not done before.

 

[The Goatreich]

Nobody?

 

[Cononthebarber]

I've just had a go at this the other night and have to say I got a fair bit more yeast that what you have there. Granted its different yeast and from a different beer but I managed to get 3 50ml "urine sample" tubs full...what was your method?

I poured the whole of my leftover **** into a 2 litre empty pop bottle and left it in the fridge for a few days...then poured the top layer into a 500ml bottle...then poured off the top layer into sink and poured what was left (which I am assuming is the yeasty goodness) into the 50ml plastic tubs which i got from HERE

 

[Mark1964]

thats plenty enough if you pitch that into 300ml of dme 4 or 5 days before you brew it will grow and you will have a pitchable amount which you then harvest again after brew has finished fermenting

 

[The Goatreich]

Conon, that's pretty much the method I used, except I washed it with boiled cooled water before separating it from the crud.

Mark, that's good to know, I just need to buy some DME now before my next brew. Starters are something I should've started doing some time ago I guess.

Cheers both.

 

[The Goatreich]

I have a funny feeling I threw some of the goodness down the sink. I think I need some more practise at this yeast reuse. The best way to do that is get brewing :)

 

[Mark1964]

you can also use wort left over from brewing i freeze it and it works fine

 

[The Goatreich]

That's fantastic idea!!

 

[Good Ed]

Making a starter is easy use a ratio 1:10 DME and water, mix with cold water, then boil for 15mins, cool and add to your yeast.

You will be fine with what you have harvested, keep them in the fridge and pour off the liquid before making your starter (try not to give your yeast temperature shock by giving it enough time to reach ambient temperature). For an ale I always make up a 1L starter, and you could do the same with what you have collected, start this about 4-5 days before your brew day and when your starter has finished put it somewhere cool to let it settle. On brewday bring it back up to room temperature, take 500ml of wort from half way through your boil and cool to about 21C, pour off your spent wort from your starter and add the fresh cooled wort, the yeast will be rearing to go when you are ready to pitch and the lag time will only be a few hours.

 

[The Goatreich]

Great tips, thanks

 

[evanvine]

I have a funny feeling I threw some of the goodness down the sink.

Pour all of your yeast lees into a 1 litre bottle, if necessesary rinse the FV with some De-min water (rain water's good).
Stand for 15 mins and pour the top off the heavey stuff into another 1ltr bottle.
Leave for 24hrs in the fridge and then pour the fluid above the settlement down the sink.
Top up with more de-min water and repeat.
When fluid above settlement is fairly clear and the yeast has a nice cream colour, pour off fluid and save yeast!
My penultimate stage is to wash the yeast in pH 2/2.5 Phosphoric acid, I believe 20ppm chlorine dioxide is even better, but I don't know where to obtain it.

 

[The Goatreich]

Thanks Evan, that's nice and simple to follow

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Starting your "starter" 4-5 days before you intend pitch is too early. The yeast in your starter will have entered the fermenting stage. You want to pitch your starter when the yeast is in the "growth" stage, usually 24-48 hrs (but sometimes as little as 12hrs). Your starter should only be slightly cloudy with very little activity. If it does take off too quickly put it in the fridge, this will slow down the growth stage. 6 hrs before you intend to pitch take it out of the fridge and bring it up to room temp. Then pitch.

 

[Good Ed]

There are two methods to pitching your starter, and this is from Yeast by Chris White and Jamil Zainashelf, you can pitch the starter as soon as the growth phase is mostly complete and the yeast are still at the height of activity (at high kraeusen) and the other method is to wait until the yeast consume all the starter wort sugars and settle out of solution before pitching, and decant off the spent wort before pitching.

I use the latter method, which is what you should use for starters that are over 5% of your brew length. To pitch at high kraeusen you have to be careful with the temperature and to keep it within 3-6C of your main wort.