Yeast Harvesting

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Toonahfish

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Hi guys,

Just a thought that crossed my mind: since beer kits come with yeast, what is the point in harvesting it? I can understand if you're doing all grain and the like, but I'm too new at this for the time being.

Thoughts?
 
There isn't really any point to harvesting yeast from kit brew to pitch into kit another brew.

The only reason I can think someone might want to do this is i) to almost guarantee not having a stuck fermentation as stuck fermentations can be caused by underpitching and lots of kits don't give you enough yeast. ii) Your in a hurry and need to ferment quickly (running out of beer stocks, perhaps) as pitching onto a yeast cake from a previous brew will ferment the next brew really quickly as your in effect massively overpiching
 
Toonahfish said:
Hi guys,

Just a thought that crossed my mind: since beer kits come with yeast, what is the point in harvesting it? I can understand if you're doing all grain and the like, but I'm too new at this for the time being.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

You might form a view that the yeast that comes from supplier X is superior in some way to the yeast that comes from supplier Y. In that case you might consider harvesting the X yeast and using in the Y kits.

You are correct, of course, in the sense that if you have a specific preference for a yeast that is not widely and cheaply available, you may as well get your money's worth. Otherwise, it is just another stage in the process.

For instance, I uesd a Belle Saison yeast to ferment 4 brews and that made it seem well worthwhile. Although there is a little bottle with some of the yeast still in the fridge, I know I will chuck it and start again when summer arrives.
 
I don't re-pitch dried yeasts, it's not really worth it IMO. I have re-pitched liquid yeasts though, as the cost so much more.
 
If you don't know what you're brewing next, if you've decided to brew on the spur of the moment, or just using up some grains on a Sunday morning then sometimes its good to have a few yeasts on the go. I've just washed a coopers euro lager yeast from my last brew, just in case.
 
Could someone please describe the process of reclaiming the yeast as I think it makes sense to reuse yeasts that have worked well for you in the past. Also once reclaimed what sort of shelf life does it have?
 
Smileyr8 said:
Could someone please describe the process of reclaiming the yeast as I think it makes sense to reuse yeasts that have worked well for you in the past. Also once reclaimed what sort of shelf life does it have?
Click to expand...

Heres what I do to reuse some of the yeast cake/trub.

i) Boil and cool 2L of water. After you've racked your beer off the trub pour the 2L of water into the FV.
ii) Swill the 2L around in the FV to get as much of the trub off the bottom of the FV so there's none stuck there.
iii) Pour slurry into a 5L water bottle and leave over night
iv) The next morning the slurry will have seperated out with a 'layer' of old beer sitting above trub slurry -decant this off.
v) Pour some of the slurry into a largish jar - about 700ml will do. Dispose of the rest of the slurry in the 5L water bottle.
vi) put jar in fridge overnight.
vii) the next morning the slurry will have seprated out again into two layers - old beer on top and trub slurry on the bottom,
viii)decant off old beer

The slurry is now pitchable and you can keep it in the fridge for a maximum of two weeks. Any longer than this I would either throw it or rinse the yeast out and make a starter with the rinsed yeast
 
I have personally found the kit yeasts to be rubbish, swap one for a branded yeast, however, and you tend to get much better results. Therefore if you are buying a new yeast at say £3 it might bump the price of a kit up to £25, reuse that yeast and you are keeping that cost down a little, because, you know, 50p / pint is a bit pricey!
 

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