Missed a trick today

[Twostage]

Hastily planned bitter brew day today, combined with bottling the last few litres of a Deuchars clone, the rest went into the new corny.

So I was interleaving bottling, sterilising and brewing. I rinsed out the slurry from the FV and then realised I should have kept it and put the bitter brew over it. :wha: Must concentrate next time.

 

[clibit]

Things can get hectic and then you're thinking "oh bugger, I forgot to..."

Happens to us all.

 

[Twostage]

I also decided to go for a quick night-time run whilst it was chilling. Didn't take into account the fact that as it was 0c outside the water running through the chiller would be colder than usual. By the time I got back the wort was down to 12 degrees. Pitched it anyway. We'll see.

 

[wheazy_joe]

I used to stagger bottling & brew days to alternative weekends but have started to combine do both on one day, seems the most efficient way to do it.

That said I always clean out the FV and start from scratch, not had the courage to drop a new beer on top of the old trub. For some reason it just doesn't seem right!

 

[SiWHU]

Like Joe, I always clean my FV, but I've often thought about putting a new brew on top of the trub from a previous one.

What's the deal here, though? Do you still need to pitch any yeast, or will the yeast in the old trub reawaken and start all over again?

 

[Covrich]

Like Joe, I always clean my FV, but I've often thought about putting a new brew on top of the trub from a previous one.

What's the deal here, though? Do you still need to pitch any yeast, or will the yeast in the old trub reawaken and start all over again?

No you use the yeast for your brew, that should come back awake and chew through your new wort.. never done it myself but lag times I hear are very short since you're pitching probably much larger than you would with a normal brew

You don't want to reuse your yeast or pitch straight on it all the time though, you will want to use a yeast that matches the style of teh beer you want..

You wouldn't bottle a belgian beer then dump a lager on top.

 

[SiWHU]

You don't want to reuse your yeast or pitch straight on it all the time though, you will want to use a yeast that matches the style of teh beer you want..

That's what I thought. No way I'd pitch a clean IPA onto yeast that was used for a spicey Xmas brew. But if I was making a few IPAs, for example, then I could quite reasonably bottle one, then put the wort from the next brew onto the trub of the previous.

Might give this a go with a couple small brews to see how it turns out.:thumb:

 

[Covrich]

That's what I thought. No way I'd pitch a clean IPA onto yeast that was used for a spicey Xmas brew. But if I was making a few IPAs, for example, then I could quite reasonably bottle one, then put the wort from the next brew onto the trub of the previous.

Might give this a go with a couple small brews to see how it turns out.:thumb:

Never done it myself I heard some people say characteristics from one brew will be carried over from one to the other.. A lot of brewers consider it bad practice and can cause off flavours and suppress esters..

I never done it, I so far have done the harvest and repitch method

 

[Twostage]

I've done a few times with smaller brews, used the trub from one five litre brew and poured it into two other five litre brews. It does go off quickly.

Wish I'd done it here, it's only just starting to bubble and I made it on Sunday, I normally expect bubbles in the airlock after 24 hours with Nottingham.

Never worried about it though as I could see the temperature creeping up in the FV so I knew it was alive. Temperature monitoring is really handy, I can see yeast activity before anything is visible and fermentation slowing down even though it is still bubbling.

 

[clibit]

You really need to use a bit of the trub in the next brew, the whole trub will be too much. People do it, but a brew is basically a huge yeast starter that produces too much yeast for another brew of the same size and strength.

 

[louis macneice]

I did it for 4 brews in a row using White Labs 007. I started with a pale ale and ended up with a barley wine; it made some of the best beer I've brewed.

Yesterday I started off a similar cycle; pitching an English style IPA onto the slurry of a pale ale using the same type of yeast. I intend to re-pitch two more times for and ESB and a barley wine.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[Twostage]

I also decided to go for a quick night-time run whilst it was chilling. Didn't take into account the fact that as it was 0c outside the water running through the chiller would be colder than usual. By the time I got back the wort was down to 12 degrees. Pitched it anyway. We'll see.

Well pitching at 12 wasn't a problem, down to 1.010 after six days.

Going to start the cold crash in a couple of days.

 

[JapanBrew]

I'm going to try that. I too looked at the trub and wondered!!! But you say the whole thing is too much? So maybe half?

 

[Cwrw666]

I've used both methods. When kit brewing I'd often put the next brew directly on the trub from the previous brew. I found I could do this once, but if I did another brew then the quality was noticeably reduced. I always assumed this was an indicator of my standard of sanitation rather than anything else (as obviously, if there are any bacteria in there as well as yeast, you're going to be bulking them up as well).
These days, doing AG, and because I no chill in the FV, I usually add a couple of spoonfulls of trub from the previous brew when the brew has cooled itself to pitching temperature. So I get 2 brews from 1 packet of yeast, and halve the cost. Of course this leaves me with spare yeast so if I'm putting on a turbo cider I can use it in that as well. Ale yeast works fine in TC but you have to be very careful pouring from the bottle not to get any yeast in your glass as it's kind of overpowering if you do. Stops fermenting at about 1010 just like in beer so your TC isn't as horribly dry as it is with wine yeast.