Re-using Yeast

[Finite]

Im a uni student and im going back to uni soon (i live on campus, CSU Wagga)

I plan to continue brewing there as I have a bar fridge in my room which i can use. I will probably mail order my stuff or get it from the local Wagga Wagga HB shop.

I plan on buying liquid wyeast and making it into about 6 or so starters which will save money obviosuly. My question is is this as far as you can take it? Ive heard of people taking the yeast from the yeast cake of their brew and re-using it. Can you cultivate that yeast into another 6 starters? How far can you take it? does it just multiply forever as long as u supply sugar? Does is ever run out?

You get the idea.

Cheers!

Blake

 

[Kai]

It will start to make funny beer after a few generations, but if you split it carefully then you can take it further than you'll ever be able to brew with.

 

[Finite]

It will start to make funny beer after a few generations, but if you split it carefully then you can take it further than you'll ever be able to brew with.

[post="105356"][/post]​

LoL well i do want the beer to taste good so how far can u take it without it going bad? Can u make more than one stater from a yeast cake?

 

[pharmaboy]

Finite,

there will likely be 2 different and opposing opinions on this I'd suggest, but i'll provide mine anyway

I bought a particular yeast Jan last year, and seperated into 2 - since then I have used bottle dregs from bottle dregs from bottle dregs ( 3 generations). At no time in the 10 or so brews have I detected a difference in the brew, with bottles available from all brews they are unquestionably the same beer (but different of course - such is home brewing). Even to be conservative, 6 starters could easily make 12 brews with a saver of yeast, repitched a few days later for a following brew (or trub if you like).

If you have a HBS that stocks liquids, I've always been sucessful at aquiring the 6 month old and greater packs for $5-00 and they have all worked perfectly (kept refrigerated of course). Once a tightarse,.........

 

[Kai]

It's not a good idea to make a beer from an entire yeast cake, but you can easily split one cake up to make several beers. And you can probably do it at least once more for every subsequent cake, depending on what you're brewing.

 

[Screwtop]

Im a uni student and im going back to uni soon (i live on campus, CSU Wagga)

I plan to continue brewing there as I have a bar fridge in my room which i can use. I will probably mail order my stuff or get it from the local Wagga Wagga HB shop.

I plan on buying liquid wyeast and making it into about 6 or so starters which will save money obviosuly. My question is is this as far as you can take it? Ive heard of people taking the yeast from the yeast cake of their brew and re-using it. Can you cultivate that yeast into another 6 starters? How far can you take it? does it just multiply forever as long as u supply sugar? Does is ever run out?

You get the idea.

Cheers!

Blake

[post="105353"][/post]​

In a perfectly sterile environment it would be possible to enlarge colonies of the same strain without mutation. Have read that six generations is ok from yeast cake etc, but really depends on a whole lot of variables. I have re-used yeast cake up to five times, but this is for spirit, the observable variations in behavior of each successive generation are discernable but very difficult to detect any changes in flavour of spirit. No such experience in brewing beer as I usually step up and split the pack into six. After a few strains have been split a fair amount of fridge space is taken up with sub bottles, and at around $3.25 per split (yeast and DME) it is just not worth stretching things any further IMO.

Beers

 

[Jazzafish]

There are heaps of posts for yeast cultures... these links should help:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...yeast%20culture

Also this one:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...yeast%20culture

This one is a bit full on though... Advanced Yeast Farming:
http://www.alsand.com/beer/yeast/index_E.html

 

[Aaron]

If you decide to go down the road of reculturing your yeast from the yeast cake have a look at Chiller's guide. This is a very good easy procedure written by someone who knows what they are doing.

Other options are to split the pack when you get it and make starters, a very popular option if you have a fridge to store in and some vials. I personally can't keep multiple sample of each strain so when I am ready to pitch my starters on brewday i pour off a small saple into a vial and keep one of each strain. I normally only reuse three times to be safe.

I know of brewers that pitch onto a yeast cake and one in particular that makes great beer. Don't be afraid to give it a go if that is what you want to do.

 

[WillM]

I believe that Whitelabs recomends up to 5 times.

Here's what I do:

Get the new yeast and pitch it into a beer.

Take 4 or 5 plastic containers of slurry (well sanitised of course) and store them in the fridge.

Use one of them for my next brew, fill the container again afer the brew has finished and use it for the next brew (up to 5 generations)

Go back to a generation 1 and start again. (as you can see with a few combinations you can have an almost unlimited supply)



The only conditions to this are:

Only re-use the yeast if the fermentation was good and the beer tastes perfect (i.e. no infections, esters or other sus things)

Before you pitch a yeast, smell it and pour a litttle off to taste, only use it only if you are 100% sure it is good. Keep a backup yeast or even a packet yeast to use just in case.

I realise it will take a while to develop the taste and smell to know if it's off, and of course it's not a very scientific approach.

I tend to use my yeasts for about a year and then get bored with them and try a new variety.

Good luck with it.

 

[Trough Lolly]

If you're not into plating yeast cultures, then bottling starters and harvesting from slurry are viable options that I've successfully employed. The key to this is keeping things sterile so that you're not plating / culturing / bottling wild yeast and bacteria along with the yeast strain that you're after.

Chiller has the good oil on harvesting yeast and I've had good success with making stubby starters out of Wyeast 1028 London Ale and some lager strains, including the Oktoberfest / Maerzen strain.

Repitching onto the old yeast cake is also an option - eg, I did an APA using 1056 Chico Ale yeast and tossed a dry stout onto the yeast cake after I racked the APA to the keg - the stout was fermented in just over 2 days. I tend to only use the yeast cake a couple of times before ditching it because I have plenty of bottled yeast to use so I don't have the issue of wringing the guts out of the yeast, but if you do want to get max value, try not to use the same strain for any more than about 6 or 7 generations - carefully checking the yeast before decanting by tasting a sample of the solution and having a good look at the yeast in the bottle - if it smells or tastes sus, ditch it and try something else.

I've never used Chris White's yeast (Whitelabs) so I can't comment on how good that stuff harvests, but I'd imagine that it wouldn't be too dissimilar to Wyeast's yeast...

Cheers,
TL