I'm going to try re-using my yeast

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
moto748

moto748

Landlord.
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
1,731
Reaction score
1,695
Despite reading umpteen threads on the topic, this is something I've never done (and I suspect there are many posters here just like me in that regard). However, I bottled my American Amber yesterday, and one of the demi-johns had a large amount of sediment in the bottom, about an inch of it, instead of the usual quarter of an inch max. So I left it in the demi-john with the air-lock fitted, and this morning I dissolved about 50 g of spraymalt in some warm water and bunged it in. If that takes off OK, I was thinking of trying it in a simple SMASH in a day or two.

Comments, anyone?
 
moto748 said:
Despite reading umpteen threads on the topic, this is something I've never done (and I suspect there are many posters here just like me in that regard). However, I bottled my American Amber yesterday, and one of the demi-johns had a large amount of sediment in the bottom, about an inch of it, instead of the usual quarter of an inch max. So I left it in the demi-john with the air-lock fitted, and this morning I dissolved about 50 g of spraymalt in some warm water and bunged it in. If that takes off OK, I was thinking of trying it in a simple SMASH in a day or two.

Comments, anyone?
Click to expand...
No need for the spray malt, the yeast is fresh. Just add some of it to a brew within a couple of weeks. Longer, add spray malt. It makes no sense to me to buy the same yeast again, if you are brewing within a reasonable time frame. It's very easy to repitch.

A lot of that sediment is not yeast, or is dead yeast. You can remove the junk by pouring a mix of beer and sediment into a container, leaving it to settle a minute or so, and then decanting the liquid to another container, leaving the junk behind, The yeast stays suspended longer and will gradually drop to the bottom of the container holding the liquid, Ready to use. This is not an essential step, I used to just add sediment. But you get a better idea of how much yeast there is and less junk in your new brew. Everything needs to be as sterile as possible, obviously.
 
Lots and lots of brewers (including myself) have pitched directly onto the yeast cake from a previous brew. There may be a bunch of junk from the previous brew, but as long as you don't leave it there for too long (months) or keep on chucking brew after brew on top of the old stuff, it won't cause much harm. You can rinse it to get of the trub like clib says, but if you fancy the easy option, just chuck the fresh wort on top of it!

Have a go, see what happens. Nothing is 'wrong' in the world of brewing!
 
I just pour my trub into a santised jar then let it settle out. Before use I pour off the beer at the top and some of the trub then use the remaining stuff which is yeast with some trub (not too much).
I believe from what I have read that the trub can act as food/nutrient for the yeast.
I do not bother washing the yeast but try to use in within a month after storing in a fridge
 
I have reused the slurry by decanting into a jar and then pitching it again on brew day quite a few times. I have never done pitching straight onto the trub, I always assumed the fermenter should be sanitised after every use, is that not the case ?
 
ceborame said:
I have reused the slurry by decanting into a jar and then pitching it again on brew day quite a few times. I have never done pitching straight onto the trub, I always assumed the fermenter should be sanitised after every use, is that not the case ?
Click to expand...
If you're careful it's only "contaminated" with the previous brew which,unless it went off,is sterile enough.
 
I overbuild starters by 100bn cells and save those back for the next time round. The Brew United calculator takes the hard work out of deciding what volume of starter to pitch and what to put into a sterile Kilner jar for keeping.
 
Alastair70 said:
I overbuild starters by 100bn cells and save those back for the next time round. The Brew United calculator takes the hard work out of deciding what volume of starter to pitch and what to put into a sterile Kilner jar for keeping.
Click to expand...
Yeah this is pretty much much what I do, although I have used the yeast cake / trub with perfectly fine results in the past
 
I have just started a batch of IPA using a yeast starter made with frozen yeast which I froze last February. Freezing in a glycerol solution really does work. I have a selection of different yeasts frozen in 15ml vials in the freezer.
 
clib said:
No need for the spray malt, the yeast is fresh.
Click to expand...

Too late! I hope I haven't done more harm than good. Of course it's bubbling away now.

[edit: just noticed I posted that hours ago, and never hit Send.]
 
I've transferred to bottling and then through experience (done it for last 5-6 years) discovered using a third of the remains in the FV is more than ample amount of yeast. Pitching straight onto the full amount is startling, and I did read (Brulosophy?) regarding over pitching. However if I'm doing a strong (10%ish) then I will pitch onto full amount of trub.
It is recommended not to do reuse for more than 8 times per batch of yeast, I stop at 5/6.
 
When I'm bottling, I get to the trub at the bottom, and give it a swirl, then bottle it into a sanitised bottle and cap it. I put it in the fridge, often for weeks, and then when I want it I let it warm to room temperature, sanitise the outside of the bottle, pop the cap, pour the beer that protects the yeast away (it will settle out and separate) then pitch while the wort falls from a great height into the fermenter. It's never failed, although I can only reuse the same yeast about 4 times before I get off flavours. I have a 3 times max rule now! Now new equipment required 😉
 
One time I had lost the yeast sachet from a kit so just built the next brew directly in the FV after finishing bottling the previous one. I reasoned that if the FV environment was OK for the previous brew then it would be OK for the new one, and it took off just fine and gave a perfectly good result.

Another time I had finished bottling a Saison and started off a bog standard MakeYourOwn kit on the trub and it definitely came out saison-ish.
 
Victor Churchill said:
Another time I had finished bottling a Saison and started off a bog standard MakeYourOwn kit on the trub and it definitely came out saison-ish.
Click to expand...
You get a lot of flavours from the yeast. You've thrown a new batch of wort onto a lot of saison yeast (from the previous brew). It's expected that it would come out with a lot of saison flavours.
 
Agentgonzo said:
You get a lot of flavours from the yeast. You've thrown a new batch of wort onto a lot of saison yeast (from the previous brew). It's expected that it would come out with a lot of saison flavours.
Click to expand...
Indeed so. And this is a Good Thing. (But you probably want to be mindful of this when planning your next brew)
 

Similar threads

moto748
Parsnip Stout
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
moto748
moto748
hoppyscotty
My journey to 'poppoing' hop aroma continues
Replies
19
Views
2K
Justin Dean
Justin Dean
FatDad
My First Beetroot Wine
Replies
19
Views
7K
FatDad
FatDad
strange-steve
  • Sticky
Beginners Guide to Water Treatment (plus links to more advanced water treatment in post #1)
60 61 62
Replies
1K
Views
239K
peebee
peebee
J
My Ginger Beer Recipe.
Replies
5
Views
5K
Toonahfish
T

Latest posts

Back
Top