Reusing Yeast

[MyQul]

One of the easiest ways to do this is to plan a series of brews - e.g. pale ale, mild, ESB and old ale - and simply pitch each brew onto the yeast cake of the previous one.

I did almost exactly this with a liquid yeast (WLP007); all the ferments worked very well and produced some of the best tasting beers I've made. It also made the cost of the high quality yeast about £1.60 a go.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

I've never done this and I personally don't advocate it. It does work in both theory and practice (as you've proved), but there are consequences to such massive over pitching. Such as over attenuation and a more bitter tasting beer than planned. Also by the third or fourth brew there's a lot of dead cells on there so you may be risking autolysis. Are you just pitching onto the same yeast cake in the same fermenter rather than removeing the entire yeast cake and putting it in a clean FV? Because if you are your also risking infection, especially in summer

 

[MyQul]

I've never done this and I personally don't advocate it. It does work in both theory and practice (as you've proved), but there are consequences to such massive over pitching. Such as over attenuation and a more bitter tasting beer than planned. Also by the third or fourth brew there's a lot of dead cells on there so you may be risking autolysis. Are you just pitching onto the same yeast cake in the same fermenter rather than removeing the entire yeast cake and putting it in a clean FV? Because if you are your also risking infection, especially in summer

Having said all that, there is a place for this technique. I'm amare that some brewers who brew a big beer with a high OG will first of all brew a smaller beer then use the yeast cake to get a large cell count to pitch onto rather than making a big starter. So all in all, I'm not saying don't do this under any circumstances but be aware of the risks

 

[GlentoranMark]

Having had trouble with 2 yeasts I tried to save it will be this method I'll be using the next time I brew. I've a German Schwarzbier (made with Safale 05) I'm about to brew so I'll create something to brew on top of it. If I get 3 or 4 brews out of the yeast it will be a worthwhile excercise.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to plan a series of brews - e.g. pale ale, mild, ESB and old ale - and simply pitch each brew onto the yeast cake of the previous one.

I did almost exactly this with a liquid yeast (WLP007); all the ferments worked very well and produced some of the best tasting beers I've made. It also made the cost of the high quality yeast about £1.60 a go.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[louis macneice]

I've never done this and I personally don't advocate it. It does work in both theory and practice (as you've proved), but there are consequences to such massive over pitching. Such as over attenuation and a more bitter tasting beer than planned. Also by the third or fourth brew there's a lot of dead cells on there so you may be risking autolysis. Are you just pitching onto the same yeast cake in the same fermenter rather than removeing the entire yeast cake and putting it in a clean FV? Because if you are your also risking infection, especially in summer

I pitched the slurry into a clean sterile fermenter and the abv ( and darkness) of the brews deliberately increased as I went along ending up with a 9% plus barley wine.

I didn't notice any unexpected dryness, but then again WLP 007 is a 'dry English' yeast so dryness was what I was aiming for.

All of that said thanks for the heads up re. both over attenuation and autolysis...more reading to do.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[MyQul]

I pitched the slurry into a clean sterile fermenter and the abv ( and darkness) of the brews deliberately increased as I went along ending up with a 9% plus barley wine.

I didn't notice any unexpected dryness, but then again WLP 007 is a 'dry English' yeast so dryness was what I was aiming for.

All of that said thanks for the heads up re. both over attenuation and autolysis...more reading to do.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

Basically, because there's more yeast to do the work, you get get a higher attenuation.

Repitching the yeast cake into a clean sanitised FV would definately be the way I would do this if I ever decided to give it a go.

Have a look at this article about an experiment done where experimenter both over and under pitches yeast, along with a control 'correct amount'

http://sciencebrewer.com/2012/03/02/pitching-rate-experiment-part-deux-results/

 

[Smileyr8]

Right I have re pitched now through 5 brews, without any problem, how many times are you guys repitching, is the a rule of thumb here?

 

[MyQul]

Iirc the yeast labs (White labs/Wyeast) say 6 gens but you can go far beyond that depending on how your harvesting/growing the yeast

 

[Smileyr8]

Iirc the yeast labs (White labs/Wyeast) say 6 gens but you can go far beyond that depending on how your harvesting/growing the yeast

I usually harvest the trub from the previous brew putting it in sterilised large jar then place that fridge until the day before my next brew. I then usually make a starter using beer enhancer (add until its pale ale coloured) and boiled water to about 3/4 to 1 pint and put this in a large kilner jar, once the liquid is cool enough to pitch, I pour the beer from the saved trub & then pour apx 1/4 to 3/8 a pint onto the already prepared liquid. Once the the next batch of beer is made and cooled I add the yeast to the beer.

I know this is not a precise method but so far it has worked well.

 

[MyQul]

I usually harvest the trub from the previous brew putting it in sterilised large jar then place that fridge until the day before my next brew. I then usually make a starter using beer enhancer (add until its pale ale coloured) and boiled water to about 3/4 to 1 pint and put this in a large kilner jar, once the liquid is cool enough to pitch, I pour the beer from the saved trub & then pour apx 1/4 to 3/8 a pint onto the already prepared liquid. Once the the next batch of beer is made and cooled I add the yeast to the beer.

I know this is not a precise method but so far it has worked well.

Your method is sound. As mentioned about 6 generations is suggested by the yeast labs. You can go to more gens using your 'bottom cropping' method but with each generation you put further selective pressure on the yeast until eventually it becomes very flocctuant and doesn't attenuate as well

 

[Smileyr8]

Think I will put it through one more beer & see what we have, I'll crop the trub but might not pitch it we'll see.

I don't think �£3.50 / 6 = �£0.59 per brew is too bad.

 

[MyQul]

Think I will put it through one more beer & see what we have, I crop the trub but might not pitch it we'll see.

I don't think �£3.50 / 6 = �£0.59 per brew is too bad.

This is the thing, you've got to be supremely tight to want to go further than about 6 gens on a packet of dried yeast

 

[Niman]

ive repitched a few times onto the yeast cake ...wlp004 i have used twice for a stout then a porter straight back into the fermenter....ferment was downright violent and worked fine.

i brew 45 50 litre batches and always hedge bets will repitch and use new ..just in case


wlp002 i have used 3 times last of which was a 1.076 og which fermemtned out quickly on the yeast cake.(tastes vile)..the one i had put on 500 ml of said cake not so much....stuck s04 pitched made no diff....gonna bring it inside rouse it....then more than likely pour it down drain...


sure its fun to experiment

 

[rodabod]

Can anyone offer me advice or opinions on this:

I've just finished 23L batch of Fullers Porter @5.8% using Wyeast 1968 / WLP002. I don't want to leave it sitting on the yeast, and would like to keg it tomorrow.

I would like to re-use the yeast from this batch for a 16L batch of black IPA with OG @1.082, but will not be brewing tomorrow.

There is about 1" of trub/yeast in the fermenting vessel. I'm guessing I will need to transfer some of this into a jar in the fridge.

What I'm not sure about is how much to transfer?

 

[MyQul]

Can anyone offer me advice or opinions on this:

I've just finished 23L batch of Fullers Porter @5.8% using Wyeast 1968 / WLP002. I don't want to leave it sitting on the yeast, and would like to keg it tomorrow.

I would like to re-use the yeast from this batch for a 16L batch of black IPA with OG @1.082, but will not be brewing tomorrow.

There is about 1" of trub/yeast in the fermenting vessel. I'm guessing I will need to transfer some of this into a jar in the fridge.

What I'm not sure about is how much to transfer?

Are you planning to just pitch the trub? When ever I've done this I pitched about 300ml-400ml into 23L of around 1.047OG. Seeing as you doing such a high OG but shorter length I'd be inclined to pitch the same amount perhaps a little more say 500ml just to make sure

 

[rodabod]

Are you planning to just pitch the trub? When ever I've done this I pitched about 300ml-400ml into 23L of around 1.047OG. Seeing as you doing such a high OG but shorter length I'd be inclined to pitch the same amount perhaps a little more say 500ml just to make sure

I originally thought of pitching the trub as-is, but I could be persuaded to try to separate it.

The only thing is, when I put my Wyeast Edinburgh trub into a jar, it didn't separate. The trub was like jelly and a constent colour all the way through.

 

[MyQul]

From what I've read WLP002 can be hard to seperate from the trub as it's so flocctuant so you might want to pitch as is.

You could harvest a second jar and try and seperate it and if it doesn't work just pitch the first jar.

The main reason, I think, to seperate it from the trub is so you can know how much yeast you've got. But if your willing to overpitch a bit to make sure your brew hits FG targets theres no reason not to pitch trub. Then you can start to know how much to trub to re-pitch for this strain based on experience.

 

[rodabod]

Thanks again for the advice. I have a feeling the Fullers strain will be hard to split, given that the Edinburgh strain didn't seem to want to either.

 

[MyQul]

When I come to buy/use this strain I plan on overbuilding starters then splitting it for the next brew rather than harvesting from the trub which should eliminate the problem of trying to seperate it from trub

 

[TartanSpecial]

When I come to buy/use this strain I plan on overbuilding starters then splitting it for the next brew rather than harvesting from the trub which should eliminate the problem of trying to seperate it from trub

Thats what I have done for my forthcoming ESB brew...grew a 3 ltr starter form virgin WLP002, split into 3. 2ltrs will go into the brew and one litre kept back to grow more ahead of next time I use it.
This thread has inspired me to have a go at harvesting some saf05 from a pale ale I'll be bottling tomorrow.... will dump some out of the bottom of the conical into a sterile container and put a bit of the fermented beer on top to keep it happy until the next but one Galaxy pale ale I plan to brew.

 

[MyQul]

Thats what I have done for my forthcoming ESB brew...grew a 3 ltr starter form virgin WLP002, split into 3. 2ltrs will go into the brew and one litre kept back to grow more ahead of next time I use it.
This thread has inspired me to have a go at harvesting some saf05 from a pale ale I'll be bottling tomorrow.... will dump some out of the bottom of the conical into a sterile container and put a bit of the fermented beer on top to keep it happy until the next but one Galaxy pale ale I plan to brew.

Those conicals are a fantastic bit of kit, especially if you want to bottom crop yeast. Have you used it for this purpose yet? From the youtube vids I've seen of people doing it you have to 'drain' out the trub first then you get the yeast. Loads easier than rinsing