Quick starter or pitch on old yeast cake?

[Moe]

Hi,

I emptied my fermentor yesterday, but sealed it back up so the Nottingham yeast cake is still there.

I have a brew on now( mash is heating). If it hits target the OG should be 1.067.

the problem is I only have one packet of M44 yeast.

Will a single packet cope with 24L of 1.067 wort? Brewfather suggest I should use 3packs.

Would draining off a litre of wort ten minutes into the boil, diluting to 1.040 ish and using this to rehydrate my yeast do anything useful? It would probably be around two to three hours between rehydration and pitch.

if not I can re use some nottingham yeast cake and pitch 1/3 to 1/2 of it. Not the same yeast but I think it would still work. The beer is a pale ale.

Any advice much appreciated

 

[phettebs]

I've pitched onto an older yeast cake with great results. I've also scooped out some of it and pitched into the new beer. Both worked well for me with no ill effects.

 

[JFB]

A jam jar or two of trub will work a treat

 

[samale]

Add 1/3 of the yeast cake. Should get of to a flyer

 

[Moe]

Thanks, added a load of yeast cake

Brewday wasnt amazing tbh, recipe predicted OG was 1.067, I ended up with 1.054, so I don’t think the yeast will be an issue

 

[Moe]

Pitched the jar of trub pictured above Friday evening.Fermented at 19C. The blow off tube was going crazy within 12hours.

I took a gravity reading this evening at it’s down to FG @ 1.009.

I’ve added the dry hops and turned the fridge down to begin the cold crash.

I had a taste out of the trial jar- obviously warm and flat but didn’t notice any off flavours. If re using yeast is this easy I’ll be doing it more often.

 

[Maxonian]

I’m a fully paid up member of the yeast harvesting fan club. My wife isn’t too happy though that there’s a self full of jars filled with ‘mud’ in our fridge.

 

[Galena]

I’m a fully paid up member of the yeast harvesting fan club. My wife isn’t too happy though that there’s a self full of jars filled with ‘mud’ in our fridge.

Yes, I ended up buying a dedicated mini fridge just for yeast

 

[Moe]

I’m a fully paid up member of the yeast harvesting fan club. My wife isn’t too happy though that there’s a self full of jars filled with ‘mud’ in our fridge.

Do you wash your yeast or just save the trub and re pitch?

 

[phettebs]

I have done both. Washing was a PITA so I only did it a couple times. The other times, I'd just scoop up some trub from the previous fermentation and put in a jar in the fridge. When I was ready to pitch, I just added some cooled wort and shook it around and pitched.

 

[Maxonian]

I used to do both too but now just save the trub. The washed yeast took longer to get going when repitched, plus it’s a bit of a faff washing it and you’re adding another stage where there could be possible contamination. When I’m syphoning into my bottling bucket, I try to leave a good pint’s worth of beer on the cake, give it a quick gentle swirl to rouse the most viable yeast into suspension, then pour it into jars which I put in my fridge. I’ve been doing this for years. It works for me.

 

[Maxonian]

Yes, I ended up buying a dedicated mini fridge just for yeast

I need to do this. I need another freezer too for all my hops.

 

[Moe]

That’s great- thanks for your replies.
I am definitely going to continue doing this

 

[Maxonian]

I would also recommend buying some yeast nutrients. It’s about £4 for 100g and you only need a pinch in a 5 gallon brew. I ran out not so long ago and the beers I made during that time (with top fermenting ale yeasts) had a sulphury smell during fermentation because the yeast was stressed too much. This had never happened for me before and the smell carried through a little bit to the final beer. When I stocked up again on yeast nutrients this stopped being an issue.

 

[Galena]

I need to do this. I need another freezer too for all my hops.

Lol I bought a freezer for hops as well (used for food as well) I also bought two tall fridges as fermentation chambers

 

[Galena]

I would also recommend buying some yeast nutrients. It’s about £4 for 100g and you only need a pinch in a 5 gallon brew. I ran out not so long ago and the beers I made during that time (with top fermenting ale yeasts) had a sulphury smell during fermentation because the yeast was stressed too much. This had never happened for me before and the smell carried through a little bit to the final beer. When I stocked up again on yeast nutrients this stopped being an issue.

I rarely use yeast nutrient and never had that problem, you do need to make sure you have a high enough cell count though and when pitching the yeast should not be warmer than the wort. I find it easier to overbuild a starter by 100bn cells and put that in a mason jar for the next brew rather than all the mess with bottom cropping.

 

[Braufather]

How do you overbuild a stater? Do you just make a usual starter then half it, save half then with the remaining build a new starter for current batch?

 

[Galena]

How do you overbuild a stater? Do you just make a usual starter then half it, save half then with the remaining build a new starter for current batch?

Use something like Homebrew dads Yeast starter calculator or Brewfather, I think its on here somewhere? Anyway you input your batch size and OG and also the size of the starter and the manufacture date of the yeast and it calculates how much DME to use and how many cells it will build. You can choose to overbuild and it will calculate how much for the wort and how much for the mason jar in litres.
Typically with a 1.5 litre starter you will add 1 litre to the brew (pouring off the excess beer) and 0.5 litre to the mason jar.
Keep the mason jar in the fridge and next time you make a starter you have 100bn cells to begin with, you can keep this going for many generations, I have just made a starter today that was stored last August and I have had to build it up over 2 sessions, but it is still good yeast.

 

[Moe]

I would also recommend buying some yeast nutrients. It’s about £4 for 100g and you only need a pinch in a 5 gallon brew. I ran out not so long ago and the beers I made during that time (with top fermenting ale yeasts) had a sulphury smell during fermentation because the yeast was stressed too much. This had never happened for me before and the smell carried through a little bit to the final beer. When I stocked up again on yeast nutrients this stopped being an issue.

I already use nutrient. I have the Wilko one atm. I usually Chuck a flat tsp in the last 10min of the boil along with the protofloc

 

[Braufather]

Use something like Homebrew dads Yeast starter calculator or Brewfather, I think its on here somewhere? Anyway you input your batch size and OG and also the size of the starter and the manufacture date of the yeast and it calculates how much DME to use and how many cells it will build. You can choose to overbuild and it will calculate how much for the wort and how much for the mason jar in litres.
Typically with a 1.5 litre starter you will add 1 litre to the brew (pouring off the excess beer) and 0.5 litre to the mason jar.
Keep the mason jar in the fridge and next time you make a starter you have 100bn cells to begin with, you can keep this going for many generations, I have just made a starter today that was stored last August and I have had to build it up over 2 sessions, but it is still good yeast.

My flask is 2 litres so I can only make 1 litre starters. But my thinking was I could split it and save half and make a fresh starter with the other half to use on current brew.