dangerbrew
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
This is an interesting one a friend in our homebrewers club posed to me the other day, and I've never had experience with it myself:
Say you wash your yeast off a batch, and that batch is a darker beer - in their case a robust porter - and plan to use that washed yeast again in possibly a lighter beer like a pale ale: would you have to worry too much about it darkening it up or changing the flavor? I told them if I was doing it I would decant almost all the dark liquid entirely, just enough to swirl up the slurry and pitch into a superlight DME starter and then decant off that as well before pitching onto a pale ale wort or anything that light, although I couldn't shed any light on whether or not it would affect the taste because I always harvest and use yeast light-to-dark and simple-to-complex, not the other way around.
Anyway, thoughts? Opinions? Experiences?
Just thought it was an interesting question. Personally I'd tend to think that there would definitely be some residual characteristics going from that dark to that light of a brew, but then again, if you're careful, maybe not?
This is an interesting one a friend in our homebrewers club posed to me the other day, and I've never had experience with it myself:
Say you wash your yeast off a batch, and that batch is a darker beer - in their case a robust porter - and plan to use that washed yeast again in possibly a lighter beer like a pale ale: would you have to worry too much about it darkening it up or changing the flavor? I told them if I was doing it I would decant almost all the dark liquid entirely, just enough to swirl up the slurry and pitch into a superlight DME starter and then decant off that as well before pitching onto a pale ale wort or anything that light, although I couldn't shed any light on whether or not it would affect the taste because I always harvest and use yeast light-to-dark and simple-to-complex, not the other way around.
Anyway, thoughts? Opinions? Experiences?
Just thought it was an interesting question. Personally I'd tend to think that there would definitely be some residual characteristics going from that dark to that light of a brew, but then again, if you're careful, maybe not?