OK, for those of you who have been following my reusing my yeast thread, I have thought about a change of plans. I might bottle today and leave the yeast in the bucket until tomorrow when I brew my new batch. Or, I can split the yeast up into smaller jars today and leave it on the counter or in the fridge use half and keep half in the fridge for future use. I guess my question is, can I leave the yeast in the fermenter bucket for the day and pitch the new beer on it tomorrow? Or is it better to fridge the yeast in mason jars and take one out in the morning before I pitch it? I have done a bit of reading and I think it will be ok, but just thought I’d ask. I am still getting my stuff together and can bottle later today if the yeast will stay good. Any input is welcomed and appreciated.
Many beers have been brewed by pitching onto an existing yeast cake. However, it’s probably an over pitch unless the second beer has a very high gravity. Even then it’s probably still an over pitch. …but it’s been done many times.
One day, you’ll wake up and there won’t be anymore time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Don’t wait. Do it now.
Yes, you can do that. Just make sure of sanitation and keep the fermenter tightly sealed. Like Brewbama says, using 1/3-1/2 might be better, but don’t sweat it. Do what seems right and is easy. Malted barley wants to become beer.
Sorry for being so dense, but you are saying to put the yeast in the jar today and then do the repitch of about half tomorrow when I brew? The whole premise of all of this is that brewing usually takes me the whole day, so bottling and brewing might not be feasible. My thought is, bottle today and then brew tomorrow. But, I don’t want to ruin the yeast if it stays in the bucket overnight while I brew tomorrow if that makes sense.
Sure. If that makes it easier, that’s the way to go. Just keep it covered with a little beer from the fermenter.
I mean, my first choice woild be to split the slurry into 2-3 jars, clean the fermenter, and use one jar for your next brew (saving the other(s) for later. But the other way is not the worst yeast management, frankly.
Something that I’m thinking of looking into is freezing yeast after watching a recent Brulosophy video. It looks like it wouldn’t take much to save enough so that you would (almost) never need to buy yeast again.
Did that for years. Eventually decided it was enough hassle that I’d buy yeast instead.
OK, update. I ended up with multiple jars and still had to dump some LOL. I have a 16oz jar filled with liquid and about half of it is the cake I believe. I am getting cold feet though as I had to just pour it into the jar from the bucket, thus introducing O2. Also, the beer it came from, while I was bottling it, I took a small glass full and it didn’t taste as good as I had hoped. I don’t want to do all this work and have the yeast cause the new beer to not be as good, if that makes sense. My thought it, maybe I should bag this and try doing to overbuild of a started in the future so I have nothing but clean yeast and clean wort. What are your thoughts folks?
im planning future brews around as much dry yeast as possible. im getting really good results with some of them, especially now that im using the lallemand yeast calculator webpage (yes i know i dont shutup about it). used 3 packs on a high gravity stout and its only 3 weeks out since bottling but i can tell it will end up going very well over the next year. that ability to pitch a large amount of yeast WITHOUT aeration should make fermenting beers over 1.075 a really strong candidate for dry yeast usage.
You are worrying about nothing. I always just pour the slurry. Done it hundreds of times. Not all O2 is bad. Learn…go for it.
Funny thing, I just tasted the beer on top of the cake in the jar and it does not have that bitter aftertaste the beer had when I bottled it. I am going to give it a go, no risk no reward, right? LOL
Yeah, beware of judging beer by the samples you take at packaging time. The beer may taste quite different when carbonated. Also, the sample I taste is at the end of the transfer when there is a bit of yeast that gets in which causes nasty bitterness on the back of the tongue. That is completely gone in the finished beer.
The yeast will consume the O2.
Well, I went for it. Dang, this was fast. There was activity in the airlock within about 3 hours and by 6 to 8 it was going crazy. Overnight and it has not stopped. The smell coming out is really good, so I am hopeful. I may get a few more bigger jars so I can do this more often. I guess the next question is, can this yeast cake be saved as well? The only problem is I don’t have a brew day coming up now for a few weeks as this batch and the batch before will hold me for a while. But, I might throw it in a jar and see what happens in a few weeks. I can make a starter and see if it is useable then I guess. It was a fun attempt, see how the final product goes. I think the end game though is still doing the freezer bank.
Yes, you can save that slurry, too. The ROT is 5 uses. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
So I always repitch on the yeast cake. My brewing regime is to brew a batch with fresh yeast, smack pack or pure pitch. Ferment about a week, keg and brew a batch the following day or two and pitch onto the yeast cake. For the 2nd ferment I use a blowoff tube
A few specifics:
I ferment in 6 gal glass carboys
After racking into my keg I cover the mouth of the carboy with sanitized Al foil.
I rack my new beer on top of the yeast cake
I DO NOT dry hop in the fermenter
I brew up to 1.050 ish and mainly 1.040-1.045
I only reuse 1 time as I only can serve 2 beers (I get 2 batches from one yeast package)
I never thought of yeast harvesting or washing etc as I feel the more you muck around the higher chance of crap going wrong.
Been doing this for 20 years
I started doing this last December. I now have 4 strains alive and well in my freezer. Just entered a beer into a comp that used frozen yeast from my bank. I live in Cape Coral FL and the nearest homebrew store with liquid yeast is over 2hrs away. I prefer liquid yeast, as there are so many great options. So, I started freezing. Makes a long drive or an overnight delivery for a few pouches worthwhile if I can get many many batches from a single pouch. But, then multistage starters are needed to get the right pitch rate. I resorted to pressure canning wort also to keep my amortized yeast costs down to a few bucks per 5G batch (including starters). Lower cost is a benefit, but the largest driver was availability.
I started freezing liquid yeast about the same time for the same reason. It’s hard to get liquid yeast in the winter due to freezing and in the summer due to heat, if it has to be shipped. I have brewed one beer with it so far and it’s just as good as a fresh yeast source. I also can wort and build the yeast up. I first started canning wort starter because I had some old malt, but it worked so well that I now do it regularly.