lynwitte

Recipes 

Well second AG into primary i did a Cream ale

7lbs 2 row
3/4 lbs Honey malt
1/4 lbs biscuit
1lb minute rice

1oz willamette for 60 min

reused my "california common" yeast

now my question is i got 1.046 on my OG and i dont know all the math for how effective my equipment is but my beers turn out pretty darn good. Well any input would be great, thoughts on how it will turn out?

Thanks

Saccharomyces

Recipes 

Pretty good. 9# of fermentables and 1.046 is about 75-80% eff. without looking it up.

Be careful harvesting yeast. I just threw out a batch that went bad because I got an infected starter harvesting the yeast from a prior batch.

- Eric

lynwitte

Recipes 

Is there anyway of telling if you have a bad harvest? I just read about reusing and thought it would be a good way to save a little money, got my 5gal batch grist for $13 plus the reused yeast.

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

Usually you can tell by smell and taste if you make a starter. I use highly cleaned plastic soda bottles, and I do a one step washing of the yeast before I fill the bottles. I have been lucky so far but I keep everything as clean as possible.

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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

Saccharomyces

Recipes 

Yeah I thought the same thing why not reuse the yeast.

I suspect part of the problem in my case is that I was harvesting from the secondary. The cell count isn't as high. In the future when I try it again I'll harvest from the primary which has more yeast and healthier ones, too.

Now that I've been through it I could recognize the smell if it happened again. Hard to describe. Before I wouldn't have known. Had a sour burnt rubber smell to it, which is exactly how the infected batch ended up. Since I hadn't done starters before I didn't think this was unusual. Just did a starter for an Irish Red, and it smelled yeasty and fruity.

Also I have since learned some other folks boil their starters right in the flask (I am using a 1000mL conical). Next time I'll do that since that way it is guaranteed to be nice and sterile, as long as no contaminants make it into the yeast being pitched to the starter anyway.

- Eric