Yeast reusing question

[StevieDS]

I've been looking into harvesting yeast from the primary, quite like the idea of having a collection of various yeast strains to hand.
I have a dunkelweizen brewing at the mo, and I want to collect the yeast, wlp380. My question is will I be able to use this in a hefe afterwards, cos the videos I watched said not to use yeast reclaimed from a dark beer for a lighter one?
Would u get much flavour from such a small amount of liquid?

 

[bunkerbrewer]

I've been looking into harvesting yeast from the primary, quite like the idea of having a collection of various yeast strains to hand.
I have a dunkelweizen brewing at the mo, and I want to collect the yeast, wlp380. My question is will I be able to use this in a hefe afterwards, cos the videos I watched said not to use yeast reclaimed from a dark beer for a lighter one?
Would u get much flavour from such a small amount of liquid?

Don't worry about it. In my FV is an American Amber using some WLP001 on its third generation. The fresh vial was used for a very hoppy, jet black Cascadian Dark, and the second generation was used for a pale ale. Absolutely no effect on colour or taste in the second brew.

I can believe the advice about not reusing yeast from a very high gravity beer, but even those who used to advise against "dark to light" (Jamil) are now going back on this and advising you use the freshest yeast you've got, regardless of the colour of beer it fermented last.

 

[graysalchemy]

I tend not to use yeast from a a dark beer in a light beer, but it is probably due to the strong flavours associated especially with stouts than actually the colour. However I did here someone saying that they did use them dark to light. More importantly don't use a reclaimed yeast from a strong beer the yeast is likely to be stressed and knackered.

 

[StevieDS]

Yeah I'll probably just use it, my dunkel isn't ridiculously dark anyway. I can understand maybe going from a stout to an IPA prob isn't a good idea though. :thumb:

 

[Smiddylad]

I've gone from dark to light and I've not noticed any issues. It is my understanding though that hefeweizen yeast strains are not the best for repitching as the viability drops off really quickly. The general practice is to always use fresh yeast with those strains. Ale yeasts are different though and they reach their peak on the third pitching. So I would avoid repitching that yeast full stop. Jamil talks about it in his Dunkleweizen episode of the Jamil Show. It's also mentioned in Chris White's Yeast book.

 

[zgoda]

I use weissbier yeast up to 3 times, 2 pale beers then dunkles or weizenbock. This way the flavour deterioration is not that prominent.

 

[StevieDS]

I've gone from dark to light and I've not noticed any issues. It is my understanding though that hefeweizen yeast strains are not the best for repitching as the viability drops off really quickly. The general practice is to always use fresh yeast with those strains. Ale yeasts are different though and they reach their peak on the third pitching. So I would avoid repitching that yeast full stop. Jamil talks about it in his Dunkleweizen episode of the Jamil Show. It's also mentioned in Chris White's Yeast book.

Ah right, thanks for the advice. I'll wait for my next brew, an IPA, before i start harvesting then. :