Yeast Slurry

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

TDA - could you flesh out your comment "...wash my slurry several times in cool boiled water". What does this entail? thanks.

Goat, here is what I do, it has worked for me so far touch wood :unsure:

I collect a cup or 250mls if you like of yeast slurry from the bottom of the fermenter when I transfer to secondary. I put this in a sterilised jar of about 1 litre capacity. This is then put into the fridge for 24 hours whilst the yeast sludge seperates from the remaining beer. After 24 hours I then pour of the small amount of beer on top of the slurry. I will then pour 250mls of cooled boiled water(boiled for 15 mins) onto the slurry, put the lid on it and shake the **** out of it. Then store in the fridge for 24 hours and repeat the process at least 2 more times.
I then leave it for up to a week and repitch 1/3rd as required. The remaining slurry I pitch into a malt starter and let ferment out then fridge it.
With acid washing you need a solution of around pH of 2.3 and you wash the yeast in this over a 2 hour period. You then have to repitch this yeast into a starter.
Hope this helps.

The usual disclaimer's apply to this advice

C&B
TDA

 

[deebee]

I bought a 5 litre glass demijohn a couple of weeks ago with a rubber bung and airlock and it is The Grouse for making starters. I built up a Wyeast 1272 to 3 litres plus froth then filled up four stubbies for the frig, leaving more than a litre in the demijohn. Poured off the liquid and pitched about a cup of slurry. Bubbling within 4 hours. Could theoretically build the starter up to four litres or more and store a big bunch of stubbies.

The beauty is the ease of sterilising, the size of it and its sexy looks. Good to watch the yeasties doing their thing.

I do like the idea of getting one of those pyrex bottles that you can put on the stove. Boil it up with extract and bung then allow to cool with airlock. Sterility guaranteed. But not sure where to source one. For now I love my demijohn.

 

[Goat]

Thanks for the advice Doc - sounds a bit scary, but I'll give it a go.

Deebee, I bought a 2L Erlenmeyer flask (conical type thing) and its great - well worth it. In retrospect I should have got a larger one though. These are the prices (excl GST):

2lt glass Erlenmeyer flask $11.00
3lt glass Erlenmeyer flask $21.00

The place I bought them from:
Perth Scientific Equipment
U2/ 11 Narloo St
Malaga WA 6090

ph: 08 9209 3955
fax: 08 9209 3944

 

[johnno]

I just use empty coke bottles to store it in.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Jars of slurry should be stored at 4C and used in a week. That said, HBers have pitched it up to 3 months later (but then did they pitch a true or mutated yeast?)

Pitching another beer into the same fermenter immediately after racking is another way to use slurry. I prefer to split my starter though than use cake. Clean fresh yeast

Jovial Monk

 

[big d]

im still trying to come to grips with whats a good tasting yeast and a bad tasting yeast slurry.
any tips fellas as personally i reckon it tastes crap so for me whats good /bad.
dont want to spoil 23 litres of beer cause i cant tell the difference.

cheers
big d

 

[deebee]

Have wondered the same, big d.

The 1272 starter I just made tastes very fruity but that is supposedly a property of the yeast. Add to that the fact that you typically brew a starter a bit warmer than beer and you have a zesty tasting starter. I swished it around my mouth for a good while before deciding to pitch it.

Off tastes are hopefully more obvious than just zesty. And they should in theory increase with time. So if in doubt maybe leave the starter for a few days and taste again?

Any other thoughts on this?

 

[johnno]

So far I have just been smelling it. If it smells beery,yeasty then I suppose its ok. Its worked so far.
Like how bad is the smell/taste when its off?

cheers

 

[sosman]

I had forgotten about some lager yeast I had saved from a "gold rush pilsner" kit (I believe they no longer come with true lager yeast).

I noticed the 600 ml PET bottle in the fridge one day lookin' a bit angry and it popped when I opened it. I figured I would use it in a partial mash pilsner (my last brew).

I washed it a few times and I reckon I ended up pitching around the equivalent of 100gm of dry yeast. Even though it was a lager yeast it was pretty well done in two days. In fact it tricked me, I pitched at a warmer temp then set the thermostat for 12 degrees. By the time it got to the target temp it was pretty much done.

The yeast slurry was more than 6 weeks old.

I have a couple of links related to yeast washing at:
brewiki: Yeast Washing

Cheers

 

[big d]

deebee
i can relate to the zesty side of yeast.
recently did a re start on a 1968 special london esb.all went well until i tried it.
words to mind... zesty,effervescent,spritelly,tingley which was very pronounced kinda like fruit loops tingle,but smelt to me ok.
i was very worried about the tingley taste/sensation so i erred my judgment and used a dry yeast instead.the yeast is still in the fridge awaiting judgement day.
any thoughts on the tingle sensation guys.?
is it ok to use /should i try it and see what turns out.

cheers
big d

 

[deebee]

Does anyone put hops in their starters to help the palate assess whether the starter tastes "right"?

 

[Murray]

Does anyone put hops in their starters to help the palate assess whether the starter tastes "right"?

Deebee, I always chuck a couple of hop pellets into my starter wort when I am boiling it. I haven't come across a 'bad' (different) tasting starter yet so I have no idea what a bad tasting starter tastes like.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

An infected yeast starter is IMO obvious to the taste. Hard to describe but tart, rubbery, vegemite like. This is what I got from a 1056 starter bottle that was around 2 years old. I threw it out.
Always taste starters b4 pitching and have some dry yeast as back up.

As for the brew I pitched my slurry into, it is down to 1014 from 1049 in less than 48 hours. Fermented at 22C. No off flavours evident.

Cheers and bollocks
TDA

 

[deebee]

i can relate to the zesty side of yeast.
recently did a re start on a 1968 special london esb.all went well until i tried it.
words to mind... zesty,effervescent,spritelly,tingley which was very pronounced kinda like fruit loops tingle,but smelt to me ok.
i was very worried about the tingley taste/sensation so i erred my judgment and used a dry yeast instead.the yeast is still in the fridge awaiting judgement day.
any thoughts on the tingle sensation guys.?

Well I was pouring a swollen 1084 Wyeast smack pack into a starter tonight for Sunday's brewing when I realised a great way to figure out what a good starter tastes like would be to taste the dregs in the bottom of the smack pack.

So I poured into my starter then had a little lick and whaddya know. It tastes just like my other starters. Kinda zesty, tingly bigD and maybe even yeasty (how about that?) So now I know.

 

[Yeasty]

Digging up an old one here, but i thought id try doing this with some ale yeast i have here (notingham) as i might make another beer the same as im brewing with it now.

So i just collect the trub in a sterilised coke bottle, then wash it out 3 times. Does it have to have an airlock for the washing of the yeast with fresh water each time?

Then when im ready to use it, make up a mix of water / malt (amount and ratios?) and pour some slurry in with an airlock then pitch this into the fermenter?

Have i got this right?

 

[goatherder]

Yeasty, it depends on when you want to use it. It's pretty safe to assume that a yeast cake has some degree of infection in it. If your beer was OK, then this will be slight. This won't be a drama if the yeast is healthy.

After you rack, the yeast starts to go downhill. Pretty fast as far as I can tell too. I wouldn't be comfortable keeping a yeast cake for any more than a couple of days. People keep slurries for a couple of weeks, maybe I'm just a little cautious. Anyway, if you keep your slurry too long, or repitch too many times, you'll end up with an infected beer at some point.

I try to repitch my yeast cakes either the same day or the next. I leave a little beer in the bottom of the fermenter, give it a good swish around then drain it into a sterile container. I use the golden circle 1kg plastic fruit containers - they hold a bit over a litre. I pressure cook them for about 15 mins then cool before use.

As for washing, I don't really bother. Give the container a shake and within a few minutes you will see the chunks of trub fall to the bottom. You can then pour off the suspended yeast into a second container. There is no need to make a starter as you have mentioned - you should be collecting more than enough yeast cells to kick off a fermentation.

I use the pitching calculator at http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html. There is a little bit of theory on repitching on the page http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php. The theory and the calculator seem sound to me, I've had no reason to question them up to date.

 

[Yeasty]

I dont plan on pitching onto a yeast cake, was wanting to just collect some off my primary ferment slurry.

I was wanting to wash it as my beer this time has hops sediment in it and wondered if others strain the slurry at all?

Id only make a starter to make sure i had a healthy yeast with before i pitch it into my wort.

 

[haro]

An infected yeast starter is IMO obvious to the taste. Hard to describe but tart, rubbery, vegemite like.
TDA

Your starter will taste like vegemite because yeast nutrient smells and tastes like Vegemite, so you shouldn't be looking for that characteristic if your starters bad

 

[razz]

Evening Yeasty. When I wash yeast I use a 500ml jam jar with the "pop down" type lid. I put a 1/2 cup of water in it and boil it in the microwave for a couple minutes. Put it in the fridge to cool then tip the yeast into it, by this time I have another jar cooling in the fridge and once the first jar has settled tip it into the second and so on until I have a reasonably clean looking yeast paste. Discarding the heavier trub each time. I have left it in this state for several weeks without any apparent problems.

 

[Yeasty]

can someone tell me how i go about removing the remains of the hop pellets in the trub to reuse it?

Or do i not worry about the hops sediment? I spose it depends on if i want to do the same style of beer again?

Lets say i dont and just want to reuse the nottingham for a different style.

thanks.