First Time Yeast Cake Question, Help Please...

[bignath]

Hi brewers,

brewed a double batch on the weekend, and woke up yesterday to find one of the cubes has slightly lost it's seal. One of them has remained airtight and contracted, the other has regained it's original shape.

Went to the LHBS today to get a fresh batch of yeast, but they've run out of the yeast i intended to use.

HOWEVER, whilst i was mashing my last batch, i captured the yeast cake of the previous fermented batch into 3 "sample" containers (the ones you get from a chemist with the yellow lids).

I have never reused yeast before so here's my question (finally)

I want to get the wort out of the cube that hasn't quite sealed properly as soon as possible, so can i just bring the temp of the yeast samples i've collected to match the wort, and pitch using the samples? The samples look like a good, clean collection of yeast with little trub and stuff. The previous batch wasn't dry hopped and it looks nice and light, milky cream colour....

Can it be just as simple as swirling some sterile water into the samples so they "pour" out of the sample containers and throwing my wort on top?

Thanks in advance, as i really want to get this into the fermenter tonight so it doesn't go nasty without a proper seal in the cube....

Nath

 

[haysie]

Its ok to pitch the cold yeast to the warm wort, Ive heard the other way around isnt the ideal way.

Why not pour off a couple litres of your wort and pitch your yeast to that, by the morning you should a have healthy active starter to throw at the cube.

 

[Wolfy]

I'd have been more inclined to wash the yeast - in much larger containers - and hence collect a greater volume of yeast to re-pitch. You need about 100ml of fairly clean and compact yeast to pitch into a single batch of beer, so as long as you think you have about that volume, I think pitching them all into your wort as soon as possible is probably the best course of action.

 

[bignath]

I'd have been more inclined to wash the yeast - in much larger containers - and hence collect a greater volume of yeast to re-pitch. You need about 100ml of fairly clean and compact yeast to pitch into a single batch of beer, so as long as you think you have about that volume, I think pitching them all into your wort as soon as possible is probably the best course of action.

Yeah that was i was thinking too.

My LHBS always has a good supply of US05 on hand so i didn't bother getting any just yet, as i didn't have a spare fermenter. Went to get some more yeast - out of stock = shit. Went and purchased another fermenter and thought "i wonder if i can reuse that supply of the last batch's yeast cake" and then posted here.
This situation i find myself seems to be "last resort" kind of thing, so i was just trying to figure out if what i do have will ferment a batch of beer so i can get it out of the cube where it isn't 100% sealed properly.

Have just weighed all three sample containers in total. Comes to 225g. Take into account the containers themselves maybe 50/60g total (they are fairly light weight) and i reckon that the yeast vs trub looks like maybe 75% of what's in the containers.

I could potentially get away with saving this batch maybe???