Saving yeast

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
335
Reaction score
39
Location
Holland on Sea, Essex
My first attempt at saving yeast. It's from a wheat beer using WB-06, all grain.
I've seen photos of saving yeast but they all seem to have 3 layers, whereas mine has obviously got 2. It was a 12l batch and after racking into secondary fv, I just swirled around the trub at the bottom and dumped it in the container.
Any ideas?
 

Attachments

  • 15943695614804549225922317606575.jpg
    15943695614804549225922317606575.jpg
    24.5 KB · Views: 123
  • 15943696610353167120118305625042.jpg
    15943696610353167120118305625042.jpg
    26.8 KB · Views: 114
Don't worry too much about layers. If you wanted to rinse the yeast then you'd want to try separating layers but it's not a necessary step.

When you want to reuse the yeast you have two options. The easy option is to just pour the liquid off the top and add a couple of hundred ml of the slurry to your wort. The second (probably better) option is to take a smaller amount of the slurry and add it to a starter medium. This will give you healthier yeast with less trub in it, plus it'll give you an opportunity to check for contamination.
 
Don't worry too much about layers. If you wanted to rinse the yeast then you'd want to try separating layers but it's not a necessary step.

When you want to reuse the yeast you have two options. The easy option is to just pour the liquid off the top and add a couple of hundred ml of the slurry to your wort. The second (probably better) option is to take a smaller amount of the slurry and add it to a starter medium. This will give you healthier yeast with less trub in it, plus it'll give you an opportunity to check for contamination.
Thanks for that. How do I make a starter medium?
 
Add boiling water to 100g of dry malt extract to make up to a little over 1L, add a pinch of yeast nutrient if you have it, boil for 10 mins, cool to 20°, pour into a sanitised kilner jar or large bottle (the bigger the better) add the yeast, give it a good shake, loosen the lid a little to prevent pressure build up, leave for a couple of days to ferment out, shaking as often as possible during.

There's more detailed instructions here: How to Make a Yeast Starter
 
If you add cooled boiled water to the trub before swirling round it will help in separating into layers.
 
Add boiling water to 100g of dry malt extract to make up to a little over 1L, add a pinch of yeast nutrient if you have it, boil for 10 mins, cool to 20°, pour into a sanitised kilner jar or large bottle (the bigger the better) add the yeast, give it a good shake, loosen the lid a little to prevent pressure build up, leave for a couple of days to ferment out, shaking as often as possible during.

There's more detailed instructions here: How to Make a Yeast Starter
Thanks for the info 👍
 

Latest posts

Back
Top