Recently harvested yeast - starter or straight in?

[jeg3]

I've not used harvested yeast before, so need some advice:

I racked a fermenting beer from primary to secondary last night and put a couple of desert spoonfuls of the yeast from the bottom of the FV into a steriliser container, sealed it up and put it in the fridge.

I'm doing another brew on Sunday and plan to use this yeast, so do I just get it to room temperature and bung it in ir is it best to make a starter? I would need to do that today for it to be ready for Sunday.

Cheers, jeg3

 

[clibit]

No need as long as you pitch enough.

 

[MyQul]

The times I've just repitched trub from the bottom of the FV I've chucked in about 300ml-400ml. Much less than that I would make a starter personally

 

[jeg3]

I've got about 100ml probably. I'll get it room temp and chuck it in. I've got a couple of emergency sachets anyway

 

[clibit]

Wait! I missed the two dessert spoons bit by skim reading. It's not enough, I would make a starter.

 

[jeg3]

Ah OK, ta muchly. Will get onto it this afternoon.

So if I want to harvest next time it's best to store the whole lot? Generally I get about 700-800 ml.

 

[clibit]

Ah OK, ta muchly. Will get onto it this afternoon.

So if I want to harvest next time it's best to store the whole lot? Generally I get about 700-800 ml.

You probably need about half that for a full batch. But yeast slurry varies. A starter is never a bad idea, I reckon. It ensures you have enough yeast, which is already active and ready to go.

 

[Tony1951]

I'm getting so much trub these days that I can't really harvest the yeast - at least not off the leas when I've wracked off the beer. Before I started BIAB and just used kits, it was a doddle to re-use the yeast, but now I'm getting between an inch and two inches of 'bread' at the bottom of the FV. This doesn't seem to harm the beers which are pretty good, but I might try and alter my sparging arrangements to reduce it. Last time the hop screen on the boiler /mash tun blocked from the off so I just had to ladle the wort out and got a stack of trub. Maybe I should mash in a separate vessel and dump the bag.

 

[jeg3]

Well I made the starter at 2pm today and after an hour or so a good head was on it. Then it went ballistic and nearly rose out if the jar. It was half full at the start.

Thanks for the advice guys

 

[MyQul]

I'm getting so much trub these days that I can't really harvest the yeast - at least not off the leas when I've wracked off the beer. Before I started BIAB and just used kits, it was a doddle to re-use the yeast, but now I'm getting between an inch and two inches of 'bread' at the bottom of the FV. This doesn't seem to harm the beers which are pretty good, but I might try and alter my sparging arrangements to reduce it. Last time the hop screen on the boiler /mash tun blocked from the off so I just had to ladle the wort out and got a stack of trub. Maybe I should mash in a separate vessel and dump the bag.

I used to get tonnes of trub in the bottom of my FV before I started to rack my wort off the break material before pitching. If you want to harvest the yeast it's actually quite easy:

.*Harvest some trub
*Make a 2L starter (200g DME/2L water)
*Put about 400ml of trub and the starter wort in a 5L water bottle and ferment out over a couple of days, shaking the water bottle at least 4 times per day.
*Once the starter has fermented out get a couple of 2L water bottles
*Shake the starter to suspend everything in the spent wort.
*Leave it on the side for 20mins and the heavier trub will settle out to the bottom of the water bottle leaving the yeast suspended in the spent wort
*Decant the spent wort/suspended yeast into the 2x2L water bottles.
*Put the 2L water bottles in the fridge to crash out the yeast so you can now measure how much yeast you've got - Job done.

 

[McMullan]

Well I made the starter at 2pm today and after an hour or so a good head was on it. Then it went ballistic and nearly rose out if the jar. It was half full at the start.

Thanks for the advice guys

Fit yeast, ready and willing... I smell a fine beer ;-)

 

[clibit]

Fit yeast, ready and willing... I smell a fine beer ;-)

Absolutely agree, fit and healthy yeast is surely the key ingredient in a fine beer.

 

[Tony1951]

I used to get tonnes of trub in the bottom of my FV before I started to rack my wort off the break material before pitching. If you want to harvest the yeast it's actually quite easy:

.*Harvest some trub
*Make a 2L starter (200g DME/2L water)
*Put about 400ml of trub and the starter wort in a 5L water bottle and ferment out over a couple of days, shaking the water bottle at least 4 times per day.
*Once the starter has fermented out get a couple of 2L water bottles
*Shake the starter to suspend everything in the spent wort.
*Leave it on the side for 20mins and the heavier trub will settle out to the bottom of the water bottle leaving the yeast suspended in the spent wort
*Decant the spent wort/suspended yeast into the 2x2L water bottles.
*Put the 2L water bottles in the fridge to crash out the yeast so you can now measure how much yeast you've got - Job done.

Hey Sorry I missed this MyQul. Great advice. I will try that. I have managed to keep a culture of US05 going, but I haven't committed it to a real brew yet. I have it living under some dme, unhopped beer in a 5 litre water bottle. :)

I should maybe do as you say and rack off the wort before pitching. On my last brew a Real English IPA ingredients kit from Geterbrewed that I bottled on Friday, I reckon I lost a bit more than 3 litres to trub at the end of the FV. I got 21 litres out of 24 in the FV into bottles. It doesn't seem to adversely affect the beer flavour though having it on all that muck for a fortnight while the yeast is doing its job.

By the way - if you want some Admiral still (I saw you mentioned it somewhere a few days ago) I have about 60 to 80gms of it that I am not going to use. I don't like it myself. If you want it, PM me your address. I have had it in the freezer for about six weeks still in the opened foil packet. It's yours if you want it.

 

[MyQul]

You right the beer sitting on the trub wont do any harm for just a couple of weeks.
Racking off the trub before pitching does seem to work for me, I lose about 2L in the initial racking then about 500ml after its fermented out, to (mostly) yeast . Do you do anything to try to seperate the wort from the trub before putting your wort in the FV e.g. whirlpooling or do you just chuck everything in when the wort is cool? (You no longer no chill iirc?)

PM sent about the admiral.

 

[Tony1951]

You right the beer sitting on the trub wont do any harm for just a couple of weeks.
Racking off the trub before pitching does seem to work for me, I lose about 2L in the initial racking then about 500ml after its fermented out, to (mostly) yeast . Do you do anything to try to seperate the wort from the trub before putting your wort in the FV e.g. whirlpooling or do you just chuck everything in when the wort is cool? (You no longer no chill iirc?)

PM sent about the admiral.

Well the last few brews I've had the bazooka block up and just had to bale it into the FV with a pan out of the ACE boiler. The filter in that boiler is quite near the floor of the boiler so it tends to block. I could make a larger filter like some of the mash tuns have where there is a loop of filtering material and then I wouldn't have this problem. I know I can get on top of this. I might look into getting a separate mash tun.

PS. Just took the Admiral remnant out of its packet and weighed it and it is less than I said - only 41 grammes. Might still do your brew though so will post it on Tuesday. Tied up tomorrow.

 

[clibit]

Maybe there a false bottom that fits an Ace boiler?

 

[Tony1951]

Maybe there a false bottom that fits an Ace boiler?

Actually, when I was in The Range trying to get more of their flip top bottles a few weeks back, I bought a sort of wire fruit bowl, thinking I could keep the brew bag off the hot base of the boiler. I had to bend the wires a bit to get it to go inside, but if I was to make a screen of some sort to go over the wire cage it might help.

On the other hand, how would that work in the boil? Very badly I think. I would likely end up with super heated steam at the bottom and cut out issues. Obviously the trub is very fine stuff - flour like really, so any screen over the bottom would have to be very fine too....

Second thoughts - If I just used it for the mash, then drained it completely, then emptied and cleaned out the boiler and added back the wort, a false bottom would work. The question is, is that easier than just getting or making a mash tun that would filter the wort through a traditional grain bed?

Maybe I have got you wrong Clibit.

 

[clibit]

I was thinking for the mash. To prevent the stuck sparge. But a mashtun would be a good alternative.

 

[Tony1951]

I was thinking for the mash. To prevent the stuck sparge. But a mashtun would be a good alternative.

Yes - I'm thinking that may be the way to go. I've seen good looking solutions on the auction site but they are not cheap for a coolbox with a wire filter and a straight forward water butt tap. I might look closely at how they made them and try and do the same. I already have a suitable tap.

This kind of filter looks hard to stick....

Just need to find out where to get that sort of metal braided tube. The rest is pretty easy really and won't add up to £80.

 

[clibit]

Yes - I'm thinking that may be the way to go. I've seen good looking solutions on the auction site but they are not cheap for a coolbox with a wire filter and a straight forward water butt tap. I might look closely at how they made them and try and do the same. I already have a suitable tap.

Just need to find out where to get that sort of metal braided tube. The rest is pretty easy really and won't add up to �£80.

My mashtun is a 19 litre Igloo cooler I got for about £25. My mate put a new tap on it and a steel braid filter similar to that one in your pic. Works well.