Re-using/harvesting yeast

[mancer62]

Would like to try re-using/harvesting yeast as I believe good results can be had. Therefore

1. Recommended Yeast Strain?
2. Do u just pour trub from bottom of FV into a container and refrigerate?
3. How long between brew batches will harvested trub last before its no good?
4. When making next brew is it just case of pouring in the trub into the new brew? Then stirred or just left. Or does it need good shake in the jar before I add to the new brew?
5. Do I use all the trub?
6. Whats longest time in months/years.anyone has known a strain to be harvested?

 

[BarnBrian]

I've had success with just keeping about a cup full of trub/yeast and for up to a week in the fridge. When I use it I just let it get to room temp and chuck it in the FV, no stirring. It usually starts to ferment in an under two hours.

 

[TheQuokka]

1. Your favourite
2. Use a sterilised large spoon to take the yeast from on top of the trub, you should find that you get enough beer along with it. A little trub won't affect the flavour of future brews, but I like to keep it minimised. Jar and lid should be as sterile as possible, preferably by boiling for 20 minutes.
3. 6 months is usually considered safe, though many have used yeast after a year or more - remember to keep it undisturbed at the very bottom rear of your fridge.
4. I usually just give it a shake, but if it has been a while or beer is greatly different it is a good idea to pour off the beer and top up with cooled boiled water first. Get it out at the start of your brew day and allow it to come up to room temperature before pitching.
5. You can try to get all of it and put it in several jars for several batches. I use what ends up about half a Vegemite jar in each beer as we still want a bit of multiplication to use up oxygen in the wort, but opinions vary greatly here.
6. With re-pitching I have gone a couple of years. I actually will stop after 6 cycles as I find the risk of mutation or infection intolerable after this. A guy here downunder regularly gets 12 brews out of a yeast but admits he has had a couple go bad.

 

[LarryF]

As I bottle and brew on the same day I re-pitch from the trub three times after the first brew. I fill two of my primed bottles 1/3 with trub (I pour a spare but I've never needed it), when my new wort is ready and at about 24c I pour the trub into the FV and then rinse the bottle twice with wort into the FV and off it goes. I put one on yesterday pitching the yeast about 9pm and when I've checked it this morning I'm glad I'd fitted a blow off tube, the lid is bulging but not popped or buckled. My gut feeling is that if kept refrigerated and then brought to room temperature before pitching, you sould be ok for 2-3 weeks. Maybe when back to room temperature a light sugar solution made with cooled boiled water added to it a couple of hours before pitching it will get it firing on all four cylinders so it's good and ready when you do pitch it.

 

[DoctorMick]

As an alternative to harvesting yeast you could try overbuilding: http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/ I find it a lot easier personally.

 

[trueblue]

Personally I don't think dropping fresh wort onto trub is best practice. There are a lot of dead cells and any crap or off flavour could be transferred. The bare minimum if you want the lazy option should be to rinse the yeast.
My own experience of top cropping has been mixed. This is when the yeast is at it's peak and I have found if I pitch within a few days it works well. This is what the commercial brewers do but they brew more frequently than me. When stored a week or more it has gone down hill but as I say that is my own experience.
I just fill a 500ml plastic bottle about 3/4 full with fermenting wort 2 days into fermentation. Plug the bottle with cotton wool an leave in the fermenting fridge until the main wort has fermented. When fermented the bottle is sealed and stored in the fridge. You need to make a starter and I start with 20ml, after pouring off spent wort, then step up to 2lt. The longest I have kept before re-using is 3 months. I have been using various methods to propagate yeast over the last 40 years as I hate dried yeast with vengeance and have found this the most successful. Not only have I not bought any yeast for over a year, and I brew at least every other week, but the yeast is getting better as it adapts to my conditions. I have a few regular ones I brew and last few of those have been some of my best ever. If you want to improve you beers improve your yeast.

 

[TheQuokka]

I have used yeast taken from the fermenter quite successfully, but when dumping a brew on top of the trub was disastrous. I think the hops, break and stuff imparted the nasty flavours.

 

[foxbat]

As an alternative to harvesting yeast you could try overbuilding: http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/ I find it a lot easier personally.

That's what I do. There's even an overbuild calculator on the brewunited website to make doing the numbers easier. You can make one pack of yeast go a year or more like this!

 

[Tanzanite]

As I bottle and brew on the same day I re-pitch from the trub three times after the first brew. I fill two of my primed bottles 1/3 with trub (I pour a spare but I've never needed it), when my new wort is ready and at about 24c I pour the trub into the FV and then rinse the bottle twice with wort into the FV and off it goes. I put one on yesterday pitching the yeast about 9pm and when I've checked it this morning I'm glad I'd fitted a blow off tube, the lid is bulging but not popped or buckled. My gut feeling is that if kept refrigerated and then brought to room temperature before pitching, you sould be ok for 2-3 weeks. Maybe when back to room temperature a light sugar solution made with cooled boiled water added to it a couple of hours before pitching it will get it firing on all four cylinders so it's good and ready when you do pitch it.

Larry i do the same turn it straight round , Bottle and brew, especially with expensive lager yeasts, i normally stick some thing like a Woodfords Sundew on the third time around use spray malt and bang some dry hops at it, and make a great low ABV summer slurper, :thumb:

 

[trueblue]

I would advise anyone who want's to brew to a decent level to buy the yeast book and forget what other brewing books say on the subject.

 

[Spapro]

I would advise anyone who want's to brew to a decent level to buy the yeast book and forget what other brewing books say on the subject.

Interesting, which yeast book would you recommend? Got a link mate?

 

[MyQul]

Interesting, which yeast book would you recommend? Got a link mate?

TB is talking about this one http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780937381960?gclid=CIOo_df5_tICFU0W0wod3dkNJw very imformative and also very accessable

 

[trueblue]

Yes that's the book, sorry I should have posted a link. I admit I had to read it twice to understand it but it gets you to understand what yeast is all about and why the choice of yeast and the way you treat it is the most important part of brewing.
70% of the flavour of your beer will come from the yeast and one thing about keeping strains going as I describe is they are certainly develop individually. At the moment I am drinking a beer made with the yeast I use in my malt forward beers, 7th generation WLP028, I brewed the same beer when it was 2nd generation and that was very nice, but this one has more depth and character. So impressed I've bottled some of it and plan to enter in this years homebrew festival competition.

 

[Spapro]

Thanks chaps, will order that book up. I am already harvesting/top cropping and re-using yeasts but a bit more knowledge is usally a good thing.

Got a Pilsner with Saflager W34/70 and an IPA with Yeast Bay Vermont yeast fermenting at the moment - both with harvested yeast (lager was from trub then a starter and Vermont was top cropped and built up in a starter prior to pitching).

Thanks again for the info on that book.

Also ordered the bits to make a cheap stirrer plate off of the Ebay !

 

[johnbarleycorn]

Thanks chaps, will order that book up. I am already harvesting/top cropping and re-using yeasts but a bit more knowledge is usally a good thing.

Got a Pilsner with Saflager W34/70 and an IPA with Yeast Bay Vermont yeast fermenting at the moment - both with harvested yeast (lager was from trub then a starter and Vermont was top cropped and built up in a starter prior to pitching).

Thanks again for the info on that book.

Also ordered the bits to make a cheap stirrer plate off of the Ebay !

Hello mate,
Gonna give the book a go.....
Couldn't post the stir plate parts link could ya ?
Cheers

 

[johnbarleycorn]

TB is talking about this one http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780937381960?gclid=CIOo_df5_tICFU0W0wod3dkNJw very imformative and also very accessable

Just ordered, cheers chaps.

 

[Spapro]

Hello mate,
Gonna give the book a go.....
Couldn't post the stir plate parts link could ya ?
Cheers

Links posted on page 2 of this thread buddy:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65471&page=2

 

[johnbarleycorn]

Links posted on page 2 of this thread buddy:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65471&page=2

:)
thanks again

 

[Manxnorton]

Hallow m8,
I recently got into the harvest yeast thingy! Like water treatment thought too much science n info to take on for my battered tiny brain..
But like anything I slowly learnt what to do, for all the yeast calculations is confusing me...
At nearly a tenner for a new wYeast 1187 ringwood Ale hoping my harvesting skills are good nuff.
I've had success with S-23, bohemian lager and another I forgot..this is the first time using liquid yeast.
You've got great responses here, just want to to say good luck...
I've enjoyed my projects so far, ferm fridge, water treatment, stir plate, ferm chamber, even making a starter..
Prob the challenge I like being classed as 'mentally challenged' due to illness.
Upward n onwards..
Good luck for ever you do.
Bri