Washing and reusing yeast

[clibit]

Use the Mr Malty calculator, it will tell you how much to use.

A lot of brewers use starters cos it gives you a much more accurate pitching rate. It's the best option. I don't, cos I'm too lazy. I measure the yeast slurry I pitch though.

 

[MyQul]

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=71028

was vaguely aware that is better to keep yeast under beer than water but this thread goes into a bit more detail as to the reasons - cheers :hat:Will wash out my yeast with beer instead of water from now on.

 

[Slid]

was vaguely aware that is better to keep yeast under beer than water but this thread goes into a bit more detail as to the reasons - cheers :hat:Will wash out my yeast with beer instead of water from now on.

Yes, just one more thing I've been doing wrong, I'm afraid.

I want to repeat earlier experiments washing and re-using yeasts like US 05 and Belle Saison this summer. I had good results with both these, using the washed yeast over a period of up to a couple of months, just storing in 250ml bottles in the fridge.

Am currently doing mainly partial mashes, which throw a lot of break material into the bottom of the primary FV. For this reason, I am not sure that the washing (with the remains of the brewed beer this time :razz:) will work so well due to the yeast being in amongst a load of white coloured break material.

I could just brew using a Wherry kit and the chosen yeast, I suppose, but it seems a retrograde step. Unless I am really pushed for time on brewday, I am reluctant to do this to get my re-usable yeast.

Any suggestions, anyone?

 

[MyQul]

Am currently doing mainly partial mashes, which throw a lot of break material into the bottom of the primary FV. For this reason, I am not sure that the washing (with the remains of the brewed beer this time :razz:) will work so well due to the yeast being in amongst a load of white coloured break material.


Any suggestions, anyone?

Have a look at the method I posted, If you notice, after adding the water and sloshing it around you leave it for twenty mins then all the break material sinks to the bottom and what your left with is just yeast in suspension. Decant this carefully into your jar/bottles and you end up with more or less zero break material.

As we both now agree, we need to keep our yeast under beer instead of water. I bottling/yeast harvesting today and will do the following for the first time but I'm confident it will work well:

Instead of adding 2L of water just leave some extra beer behind (I know, you'll have less to drink, :cry: but it's in a good cause ) and swirl this around the bottom of the FV to lift all the trub/break material into suspension then leave for 20 mins. The break material will sink to the bottom leaving the yeast in suspension to decant off.

 

[Slid]

Thanks, MyQul!

Sounds good.

 

[rodwha]

A method I was turned on to was to make a larger starter and save the additional portion. This keeps out all trub, is quicker, doesn't use additional things in need of cleaning, and has much less risk of problems.

 

[MyQul]

Well, trying to wash out the yeast using beer didn't go well. After sloshing the trub around with some beer left in the FV I left it for 20 mins but it didn't seperate out like it does with water so I just collected a jar full of trub. I'll now have to wash the yeast out of this using water.

I think next time I will go back to using water as this seems to wash out the yeast well but after the jar with the yeast & water has seprated out and the yeast compacted down I think I will just decant off the water and open a bottle or two of beer, degass it and pour the beer into the jar on top of the yeast to store the yeast under

 

[rodwha]

The way I was told to wash the yeast was to boil a gallon of water (3.8L) and split that into 3. Use 1/3 of it in the leftovers from bottling and swish then let sit 20 mins. Pour that watchin for the sediment into another vessel and pour another 1/3, swish and let settle for 20 mins, and repeat again. The final container should be fairly clean.

 

[MyQul]

A method I was turned on to was to make a larger starter and save the additional portion. This keeps out all trub, is quicker, doesn't use additional things in need of cleaning, and has much less risk of problems.

Could you detail how you go about make a large starter and splitting?

 

[rodwha]

What I did was made my starters about 1.5 times the size called for. I didn't get real technical as I reused everyday jars that weren't marked so I could only guess as to the volume of yeast slurry I was starting with, but I'd make a 1.5 quart starter with 6 oz of DME. Use 2/3 of it and save the other 1/3.

 

[Slid]

I could just brew using a Wherry kit and the chosen yeast, I suppose, but it seems a retrograde step. Unless I am really pushed for time on brewday, I am reluctant to do this to get my re-usable yeast.

Any suggestions, anyone?

Many thanks, sincerely, for the input on this.

I did my own trial today on a batch racked to secondary. Agree totally with MyQul's findings. There was no real break point in the slurry.

At the risk of sounding really boring, I am now of a mind to use 2 can kits as the Mother Brew to re-use the yeast in Daughter brews.

 

[MyQul]

I did my own trial today on a batch racked to secondary. Agree totally with MyQul's findings. There was no real break point in the slurry.
.

I think water being less viscous allows the trub to settle out so you can decant the yeast in suspension off. This allows yeast to be washed out using water rather than beer that much easier

As mentioned I think the trick is to wash the yeast using water, then add the beer to keep it under later. Nowhere have I read that doing this is bad practice only that keeping yeast under water for any time is


N

 

[MyQul]

The other thing you could do is wash out your yeast using your prefered (water) method, keeping your yeast under water till 12 hours before you need it. Then reinvigorate by making a starter.

 

[Slid]

Today I kicked off a PM brew using my 2015 summer season US 05. I got good results using this yeast, first on a 1.5k of grain Partial mash and then on a number of different "daughter" brews using water washed yeast from the first brew.

Dates are: Original "Mother" brew (2 can kit plus 1.5k total grain PM) pitched 19th Feb 2015. Yeast washed on 27 Feb. Initially into a 2L PET bottle, and thence into 250ml PET bolles that had lemonade in them. (Teenage daughters of the human variety).

First "daughter" brew pitched 8 March and the last one on 5 May, so 9.5 wks () after washing.

There will have been a fair amount of beer as well as water, I suppose, in the washing liquid, because the break material is nowhere near compacted solid. I brewed this first one initially at 25L and there was only 23L post racking.

Maybe this accounts for my luck with the re-used yeast. I was a bit slapdash hygeine wise, not star-sanning the edges of bottles and things like that. If you were to go more than one "generation" down I think a very careful sterilising regime would be in order.

 

[hichaechoc]

I tend to leave my brews for 2 weeks in the primary fermenter before siphoning into the secondary fermenter, giving it a further 2 weeks then into litre PET bottles with a teaspoon of priming sugar. Typically, there is little deposit in the secondary fermenter. With the Munton's Belgian I've just bottled I purposefully poured the last liquid from the fermenter into the bottle shown on the left of the fridge. It has priming sugar but has been left in the fridge since bottling so no further fermentation has taken place. It was my intention to use it for the next tweaked Wherry to try and get some of the Saison characteristics passed on. I'm intending to just give it a shake the day before use and then let it warm up to room temperature using it all in a 23 litre brew. I'm guessing that it should keep for 2 months at least but has anyone any comments on this? I'll post back in due course to report back on this.