Yeast help

[Jakeyboi]

Tomorrow I plan on doing a 5l stove top AG batch. I recently brewed a American brown ale which was supplied with us-05 yeast. I kegged this mid week and scooped up some of the trub into a sterile Kilner jar and have put into the fridge. Am I ok to use this yeast? It doesn't look great but then I don't know what I'm looking at. Also I will be brewing a pale as I'm using Maris otter. What do u think? Cheers

Jake

 

[Leon103]

Is there any mould or funny smell? If not then you can use it.

 

[MyQul]

Looks fine to me. As Leon say if it smell ok it's fine. You could even have a little taste of the beer on top before using it to make sure too. It looks like you've got lots of trub in there so I'd use about 250ml-300ml

 

[Jakeyboi]

Thanks, it smelt good so I've chucked in about 250ml. I was more concerned that it had been used on a dark beer and I'm throwing it into a pale. It's my first ag batch so now I'm waiting for that reassuring glug of the airlock.

 

[DoctorMick]

Thanks, it smelt good so I've chucked in about 250ml. I was more concerned that it had been used on a dark beer and I'm throwing it into a pale. It's my first ag batch so now I'm waiting for that reassuring glug of the airlock.

Going dark to light isn't ideal because the beer in the harvested yeast can effect the flavour a little but you don't have a look of beer in there so you'll be fine.

 

[cheapbrew]

Also yeast from trub will have other things like dead cells and hop debris that could possibly affect the taste of a lighter brew.
Next time harvest yeast in suspension from the top at high krausen and you wont get any flavour from dead yeast cells and hop debris. :thumb:

 

[DoctorMick]

Also yeast from trub will have other things like dead cells and hop debris that could possibly affect the taste of a lighter brew.
Next time harvest yeast in suspension from the top at high krausen and you wont get any flavour from dead yeast cells and hop debris. :thumb:

Are all yeasts suitable for top cropping? For some reason I think they're not but I don't know why as I've never really looked in to doing it properly.

 

[Hoddy]

Yeah all yeasts are good for top cropping as well as reuse of the slurry (the bottom stuff). However it's not recommended to harvest and reuse dry yeast (fermentis/mangrove jacks etc) as the drying process affects the yeast cells. And it's dirt cheap so it's not economical to harvest. Unlike some of the exotic wyeast/whitelabs/yeastbay liquids.

If you look on beersmith there's a great starter calculator that even tells you the volume of slurry to use as a re-pitch.


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[MyQul]

However it's not recommended to harvest and reuse dry yeast (fermentis/mangrove jacks etc) as the drying process affects the yeast cells.


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I wonder if this is one of those brewing forum myths or the manufacturers trying to make money by telling people not to re-use their dried yeast. Plenty of people, including myself redo, even the cheapest. I re-used some Wilko Ale/Gervin yeast today it only cost £1.79 per pack and I have a spare in the fridge but I really hate re-hydrating yeast ( weirdly enough I dont mind making starters) so I repitched some slurry

 

[Hoddy]

I wonder if this is one of those brewing forum myths or the manufacturers trying to make money by telling people not to re-use their dried yeast. Plenty of people, including myself redo, even the cheapest. I re-used some Wilko Ale/Gervin yeast today it only cost £1.79 per pack and I have a spare in the fridge but I really hate re-hydrating yeast ( weirdly enough I dont mind making starters) so I repitched some slurry

I know what you mean. For the sake of cost I only ever bother harvesting the expensive liquid yeasts that you can't get in dried form. If anything that it tells me that because you can't get every yeast strain in dried form. There is some truth in this. To a point.

But I can't but help wonder if you are right and there is a certain element of "bending of the truth" by the dry yeast manufacturers.


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[Doglaner]

I'm on that stage of the AG journey where I can make a competent and tasty ale, but I am reading a LOT about beer making to hone my craft, and talking to people about the different aspect which can affect consistency and taste.

One thing I am picking up about yeasts is that they are very influential to the final flavour of the beer, due to the different compounds different yeasts will make during fermentation. Ive therefore started to buy the appropriate yeast for the style I'm trying to create.

I've also read and heard that cropping and culturing your own yeast from a full Krausen is a great way to save money on yeast, and particularly if you brew a lot of the same type of beer. However, after many generations of cropping, as each batch also includes many intermediate generations, introduces mutations which may or may not change the yeast. Over time and many cropping these mutations can become significant.

I've just finished reading a Santa-delivered copy of "Brew Like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus, and he mentions several times that Belgian brewers at some breweries will keep their yeast strain pure by going back to the original in the lab every so often, and not crop and repitch more than 12/15 times before starting with a fresh batch, to avoid their mutations.

Mind you, this is fine and relevant for commercial brewers who make a new batch daily, however if you only brew once a month, it's probably academic. Interesting, though. Crop away!!

Hope this informs a bit. What a wonderful hobby, eh?