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MikeFallopian · 12-12-2012, 06:46 PM

I'm making a Schwarzbier while the temperatures are cold, and I'm using Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian lager). Liquid yeast is rarely found where I live, and I ordered this online, so I'm planning on reusing it.

While the temperatures are cool I'm thinking of brewing another lager; would it be ok to pitch a new beer onto the yeast slurry from the Schwarzbier? Are there any particular styles I should stick to if I do this? I was planning on making a Dunkel or a Bock.

Cheers!

inhousebrew · 12-12-2012, 06:56 PM

From Wyeast's website it looks like really any kind of bock should be appropriate for that yeast strain. If you really, really care about color you could rinse the yeast before pitching onto it to try and get some of the color out of it from the Schwarzbier but that may or may not be necessary. Also, a full yeast cake is probably more than you need. Your Schwarzbier was essentially a five gallon yeast starter. You could take at least half of it and toss it in a sterilized mason jar for storage in the fridge.

WoodlandBrew · 12-12-2012, 06:56 PM

If you pitch onto the whole cake you aren't going to get a whole lot of flavor from the yeast, but that could be a good thing for a lager. Slurrys contain roughly. 1 trillion cells per liter, but this can range from 250 million to 2 Trillion in my experience. A cell count would give you a much better estimate. Yeast health and contamination level can also be assessed.

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/counting-yeast-cells-to-asses-viability.html

**osagedr** · 12-12-2012, 06:59 PM

Depending on how much slurry you have, you may not want to use all of it. Use one of the pitching rate calculators to determine how much slurry you need. If you underpitched your lager (like most people do) you may have just enough to do another batch.

It may not be ideal for you to re-use the slurry in a typical light lager since a Schwarz is often more flavourful. A dunkel or bock should be fine, or maybe a rauchbier. 2206 gets lots of respect in the brewing literature as a versatile and effective strain, although I personally have never had much to do with it.