OK, so I have a batch that I used WLP001 Dry just getting ready to finish. I was thinking of trying to save this yeast for another batch coming up in the next week or two. My thought was, just leave a tiny bit of beer on the yeast, swirl it around to get everything up and running then save it in a mason jar. Put it in the fridge and, when ready, bring it up to room temp and pitch it into the new batch. I know some are going to recommend starters, but I have not had good luck with that the first time I tried. Is it possible to just pitch the yeast without a starter? Am I wasting my time if I do? I am thinking of trying this next week once I bottle the batch, so I have some time to rethink this. As usual, any input is welcomed and appreciated.
Divide it into 2-3 sanitized containers and store in the fridge. An entire slurry is too much for a 5 gal. batch unless the gravityis very high… I pitch a jar directly if it’s been maybe 3 weeks or less. More than that I make a starter with a bit of it.
What happened with your starter before? One bad experience is no reason to write off the procedure. It’s just a small batch of beer, and you know how to make beer.
I do half batches (about 2-3 gallons), but I’ve had good success storing slurry in sanitized pint and half-pint mason jars for up to several weeks in the fridge. Just don’t tighten to lid too much in case they’re still producing CO2.
I reuse yeast all the time but I don’t like to store it for any real length of time. Denny’s 3-week rule is good and that’s not just a random suggestion … it seems to be pretty consistent with others that I talk with. For me, I use the yeast and harvest it at the end of fermentation and store it in a sanitized flask in the fridge and if I only need half of it on the next pitch I’ll add half and maybe use the other half on another beer (if brewing activity is HIGH) or toss it and then harvest from the last pitch and do it all over again. I just used 1056 on eight consecutive batches. Also, what is WLP001 dry?
WYeast says, “Pitch ~ 1 fl oz per gal harvested Ale yeast slurry or ~2 fl oz per gal harvested Lager yeast slurry in < 1.064 wort. Pitch ~3 fl oz per gal harvested yeast slurry > 1.064.”
I have reused yeast that has been sitting in the fridge for 2 or even 3 months, and they’ve ended up being great beers despite it. And that’s with never making a starter to revive it.
Some strains seem to be better than others for surviving long dormancies, and I certainly didn’t intend to go that long between re-uses, but since I split-batch almost all my fermentations, once in awhile I feel that I can afford to gamble on a fraction of my wort. It works out fine (until it doesn’t).
I generally try to re-use yeast slurries in 2 weeks or less. It’s way easier than I had imagined, and my beers from nth-generation slurries seem to be better than 1st gen pitches, for me at least.
Now that Lallemand has discontinued their Koln dry yeast, I am going to attempt to keep that line alive as long as I can via re-used slurries. I love that yeast.
I also collect yeast and repitch it. I can tell you from my experience that you can keep stored in a mason jar, loose lid, for a few months w/o a starter and w/o issue. I keep mine in the keezer that is between 35*-38*. When the beer that’s kept on top of the yeast turns a dark color, I will do a SNS starter, no rhyme or reason for that except that I can see activity before pitching. I also keep plenty of dry yeast options just in case the starter fails.
Good Luck & Cheers!
It just never seemed to take off. I used your SNS method, but the yeast I used may have been DOA as it was shipped and might have gotten warm. I wil try again with part of the yeast I can save. I have a couple of mason jars, one is a cup I think and the other two are bigger. I am going to give it a try, why not, right? LOL
Since there are other options that are quite similar to what they’re offering and plan to offer, I agree. The day they offer something like WLP002 dry, I will be all over it even at that price.
But aren’t cells slowly dying off over time? I know that you would still have enough viable yeast to commence a fermentation, but after a couple months you’re pitch rate would need a major adjustment, right?
The pitch rate will be set by the activity of the yeast in the new wort used for the starter, based on the gravity of that wort. The prior dead cells in the solution and the trub will simply fall to the trub at the bottom and likely carryover (if at all) as nutrient for the batch. At least that is how I recall it being explained at one time.
I think it is good advice for all brewers, regardless of skill level to use a yeast calculator. Any amount of viable yeast cells will commence some fermentation, but the quality of beer you produce is going to be largely affected by the cell count of your pitch. Mr. Malty is free, and super easy to use.
I think many brewers who use SNS starters will disagree with that. Traditional starters based on cell counts from Mr Malty work, but pitching an active starter at high krausen works just as well in my experience.
It has been my experience that healthy yeast is much more important than cell count. In the SNS you’re pitching far fewer cells that a calculator would have you believe you need, but because you’re pitching g healthy, active yeast, in a few hours your cell count is comparable and the yeast is in much better condition.