Reusing Yeast Directly From The Fermenter

[aussierover]

I have looked through the yeast related topics and have failed to find what I am looking for. Can I wash the yeast once fermentation has finished and use it straight away in the following batch within an hour say? I have heard of people putting a new batch straight onto the the leftover sediment in the fermenter, however it is not advised because of the abundance of heavier gunk. I ask because I am using a better yeast at the moment and would like to try my hand at reusing it without going to the trouble of stepping up a starter. Could I wash it and use half and keep half to get practice before trying slants, starters etc. and would this yeast be in a healthy, hungry and reproductive state? I dont want to pitch it and 'kaboom' run for my life!! :blink: Apologies if this topic is already covered..

 

[Fourstar]

The simplest method for any newcomers is to sanitise a 1/2 cup (for ales) or a 1 Cup measuring cup (for lagers) and simply leave around 500ml of beer in the bottom of the fermenter along with the yeast and trub. Swirl it until its all in suspension and scoop your required 1/2cup or 1cup of yeast and dump directly onto the wort in the second fermenter.

the reason for the 1/2 cup or 1 cup is it will have the correct pitching rate for a standard 23L 1.050 OG beer. :icon_cheers:

dont worry about washing it unles you can be sure you wont contaminate it.

 

[MisterJingosSmile]

I have been thinking about doing this as well.

Just out of interest, I have heard (brewstrong) about re-using active yeast by collecting it from the krausen at the top of a fermenter when things are really going around day 3 and adding it directly to a new batch of wort.

I would like to be able to store my yeast for up to several weeks before reusing it as I tend to switch between brewing wheat beers and more regular beers each time I brew... and it's usually a few weeks between a brew.

In the few posts I've read on the topic, people have reported having luck with using the approach suggested by Fourstar but keeping the slurry in a 500ml bottle in the fridge for a while and pitching it when they need it. This is the approach I intend to take. I will do a 1L starter with the yeast before pitching as well.

What I'm unsure about is whether it is worth using this approach for a wheat beer fermented with wb-06. I have heard that the results can change quite a bit between generations of wheat beer yeasts. Any suggestions?

 

[Wolfy]

In the few posts I've read on the topic, people have reported having luck with using the approach suggested by Fourstar but keeping the slurry in a 500ml bottle in the fridge for a while and pitching it when they need it. This is the approach I intend to take. I will do a 1L starter with the yeast before pitching as well.

Yeast slurry has a fairly short shelf-life, most of the things I've heard/read indicate that storage of about 1 week is fine, but much more than that (several weeks in your case) can leave you with a large portion of non-viable cells (also look at the MrMalty calculator and play with the harvest date). If that's true then direct-pitching the slurry that has been stored for some weeks is not really a good idea, however by creating a starter you should be able to build up the number of live yeast cells to an appropriate volume for pitching.

 

[bconnery]

I have been thinking about doing this as well.

Just out of interest, I have heard (brewstrong) about re-using active yeast by collecting it from the krausen at the top of a fermenter when things are really going around day 3 and adding it directly to a new batch of wort.

I would like to be able to store my yeast for up to several weeks before reusing it as I tend to switch between brewing wheat beers and more regular beers each time I brew... and it's usually a few weeks between a brew.

In the few posts I've read on the topic, people have reported having luck with using the approach suggested by Fourstar but keeping the slurry in a 500ml bottle in the fridge for a while and pitching it when they need it. This is the approach I intend to take. I will do a 1L starter with the yeast before pitching as well.

What I'm unsure about is whether it is worth using this approach for a wheat beer fermented with wb-06. I have heard that the results can change quite a bit between generations of wheat beer yeasts. Any suggestions?

There's plenty of people storing slurry for a few weeks and then using a starter. As long as you harvest and store it in sanitary conditions you should be fine. Any longer than 1 week and you definitely want to make a starter I think, but you plan to do that anyway.

With regards to the results changing the main issue I believe, and I am by no means an expert, is that underpitching slightly can assist in ester production, which is desirable for wheats. Using slurry can often lead to a higher yeast count, particularly if used fresh, so ester production may, but not necessarily, suffer as a result.
That's my understanding of one aspect anyway.

 

[aussierover]

The simplest method for any newcomers is to sanitise a 1/2 cup (for ales) or a 1 Cup measuring cup (for lagers) and simply leave around 500ml of beer in the bottom of the fermenter along with the yeast and trub. Swirl it until its all in suspension and scoop your required 1/2cup or 1cup of yeast and dump directly onto the wort in the second fermenter.

the reason for the 1/2 cup or 1 cup is it will have the correct pitching rate for a standard 23L 1.050 OG beer. :icon_cheers:

dont worry about washing it unles you can be sure you wont contaminate it.

The yeast I am using is from the Morgans blue mountain lager, which as I understand is better than kit yeast but by no means top quality. It makes for a perfect opportunity to tempt my hand at reusage. Say I used 3/4 of a cup of slurry in another kit, say coopers mexican with enhancers, is that O.K?

By doing that I could wash and keep the rest. How would I tell if the washed yeast had picked up contaminants prior to use?

Is the coopers international yeast on par, better or worse than morgans BM lager yeast??

 

[Fourstar]

The yeast I am using is from the Morgans blue mountain lager, which as I understand is better than kit yeast but by no means top quality. It makes for a perfect opportunity to tempt my hand at reusage. Say I used 3/4 of a cup of slurry in another kit, say coopers mexican with enhancers, is that O.K?

By doing that I could wash and keep the rest. How would I tell if the washed yeast had picked up contaminants prior to use?

Is the coopers international yeast on par, better or worse than morgans BM lager yeast??

I dont forsee any need to reuse kit yeat. Considering you get a new one under each lid its kinda pointless. For yeast viability and the chance of contamination i'd just stick with using a fresh packet.

As for the beer kit to use it on, use any it doesnt matter, what matters is the OG of the wort for the pitching rates i described.

OG 1.050+-2 @ 23L
Ale - 1/2 cup slurry
Lager - 1 cup slurry


The way to pick up on contaminants is to taste and to smell, usually it will smell sour or vinegar like and taste somewhat the same. If it tastes doughy and yeasty (atleast to my palate) shes good to go.

 

[mintsauce]

I've not had a problem just chucking a new batch of wort directly on top of the yeast from a batch before (quite similar beers but not the same) and it has produced some really nice beers (I'm up to AG #15 now, I'll update sig later), I would not do more than once or twice tho.

I do plan to do yeast slants and work on my yeast health a bit in the near future.

 

[jakub76]

I store and re-use almost all of my yeast, often for 2 months at a time.
The most important thing to do it sanitize everything every step of the way, but that's pretty easy.
I start by racking the beer off the yeast cake into a bottling bucket (2nd fermenter)
I then add 500ml of cooled, boiled water and give the vessel a good swirl. This puts the yeast and trub into suspension.
I then pour it into a sanitized pyrex jug and cover with sanitized glad wrap.
After 15-20 minutes most of the trub has fallen out and left the yeast in suspension so I decant the yeasty water into a sanitized jar leaving the trub behind. Then I seal the jar tightly and place in the fridge.
After a couple of days the yeast has all gone dormant and settled on the bottom leaving 500ml of pale yellow, diluted beer. I decant that off the yeast and top it up with another 500ml of cooled, boiled water - seal and give it a good shake.
A few more days in the fridge and I repeat the 'washing' process until it comes up clear.

To re-use I always make a starter - 50g DME into 500ml water boiled and cooled (SG around 1.040) into a PET bottle with an airlock. Ales I do this the night before brew day then feed it up again with some 1st runnings. Lagers I start 24-48 hours early and feed up again on brew day.

I also love heffe, despite hearing JZ suggest that wheat beer yeast won't keep long I tried it anyway and am enjoying good results after storing for 3 weeks.

EDIT: Left to right it's Wyeast 2083 Munich Lager, Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen and finally US-05, my WLP830 is busy at the moment.

 

[Fourstar]

I've not had a problem just chucking a new batch of wort directly on top of the yeast from a batch before (quite similar beers but not the same) and it has produced some really nice beers (I'm up to AG #15 now, I'll update sig later), I would not do more than once or twice tho.
I do plan to do yeast slants and work on my yeast health a bit in the near future.

This is known as overpitching (or close to). By doing this you can have issues with autolysis of yeast cells lending flavours into your beer and a lack of fresh new healthy cells chewing on your wort ensuring you have proper attenuation.

Would you prefer a colony fresh young healthy yeast making your beer or excessive amounts of old fat and lazy yeast converting your alcohol?

You always want some fresh new yeast cells in your beer, hence my controlled pitching rates so you get a fresh build up of healthy new cells. Dumping onto a whole cake is not advisable unless you are brewing something ultra high gravity 8%+ ABV and you will get some growth that you require.

Also with pitching at those rates you can end up with a 'yeast bite' or a distinct yeast characteristic in your final beer (can sometimes taste rubbery). not a good thing.

Just a word of warning. :icon_cheers:

 

[Fourstar]

I also love heffe, despite hearing JZ suggest that wheat beer yeast won't keep long I tried it anyway and am enjoying good results after storing for 3 weeks.

Ive also heard the same with slanting it. I'll soon find out however. Ive got a Hefeweizen and a roggen in the pipelines! :icon_chickcheers:

I feel sorry for my mash tun, shes going to get a beating with lack of husks in the next few months!

 

[haysie]

I agree overpitching should be avoided for all the reasons above. I wash my yeast sometimes, I reckon it stores much longer than a dirty slurry. Direct pitching the washed yeast is my preferred but sometimes I dont have a brew ready so I store it then fire it with a starter. Now mainly using better-bottle carboys allows me to take the so-called best yeast via the blow off and repitch, capturing this yeast previously although not using it blew me away how clean it was, in the future i will use a sealed container with sterile water for my blow-off then reuse. Talking to a couple of accomplished brewers at the British Ales Comp on the weekend, the blow off method is pretty much a Burton thing many many years ago. Now I have a place for 3068 to pop its head up.

 

[jakub76]

in the future i will use a sealed container with sterile water for my blow-off

where will the CO2 go?

 

[haysie]

where will the CO2 go?

good point, poor words! semi sealed, glad wrappy flask

 

[pdfarrell]

The simplest method for any newcomers is to sanitise a 1/2 cup (for ales) or a 1 Cup measuring cup (for lagers) and simply leave around 500ml of beer in the bottom of the fermenter along with the yeast and trub. Swirl it until its all in suspension and scoop your required 1/2cup or 1cup of yeast and dump directly onto the wort in the second fermenter.

the reason for the 1/2 cup or 1 cup is it will have the correct pitching rate for a standard 23L 1.050 OG beer. :icon_cheers:

dont worry about washing it unles you can be sure you wont contaminate it.

How many times can this be done using this simple method ? How many batches or 'generations' ?
I assume if the beer tastes okay at bottling/kegging than it is good to go ?

Proposed method:
For an ale.. fill about a 3rd of a sanitised schooner glass with the swirled up slurry/beer mix (out of the tap), cover with glad wrap for 1/2 an hour at room temp while I clean/sanitise fermenter, prepare new wort, and throw in when temp is okay.
Gee I hope it can be that simple.. just starting to use "non-kit" yeasts, and would like to get a little value for money.. with out all the hassle of "washing", "farming" etc.

 

[RdeVjun]

BC, I think I did that over half a dozen times before I decided I wanted to switch to a different strain, however IIRC others have reported doing so for many more batches than that. It is an easy and very straightforward way to get much more value out of a smackpack etc, without having to resort to one of the various forms of yeast ranching. I'd recommend it, so long as sanitation and preparation are up to scratch. Top cropping is another way to do that, however the conditions just mentioned are even more important, along with suitable strains.

 

[pdfarrell]

Sanitation done thoroughly with starsan.. using US-05 yeast. Not really looking to change strains to often... just would like to get maybe 3-4 batches from a packet.

 

[mwd]

Exactly the way I do it except collect as much as possible into empty 450g black olive jars with screw lids then can save 2 or 3 in the fridge for later. They last for months.

I did read that 6 generations was the recommended maximum as the yeast mutates on each new generation. I usually don't go more than about 4 myself as I usually brew such a wide variation in beer styles you don't really want to be using stout yeastcake in an APA.

 

[haysie]

"snip" you don't really want to be using stout yeastcake in an APA.

Why not? Is the yeast tanned. :blink:

 

[kelbygreen]

from what I read you are best to use a heavier and maltier beer then the you are reusing. I have never reused yeast but that is what I have gathered