Yeast Cake?

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If this is a joke......

Yes you can flush it, or spray it on the yard, or wash it and re-use it, or just pitch a new batch on it.

Whatever floats your boat.
 
Wash it! Unless you want to pay another $6-7 next time you use that same exact strain. Look for the "yeast washing" instructions somewhere on this site - I think under the yeast section.
 
Drive to my house and pour my wort onto it. I will get it back to you nice and clean in 2 months.




*man this devolved quick! It may have been my fault for that first reply, but I had just come from post 200 on the "why not to pitch on your yeast cake thread (with which I disagree BTW) and this was the first shiny new thread, lol.*
 
If you wash the yeast and shown in the other thread, does that mean that you will never have to buy yeast again?

No not exactly... a) You can wash yeast only a few times (like 5) before you should scrap it, and b) Different strains of yeast for different styles, not to mention lager vs. ale yeast etc... lots of different strains out there to use!
 
If you wash the yeast and shown in the other thread, does that mean that you will never have to buy yeast again?

You eventually will, but....

You can get so many uses out of 4-5 generations (think 4 jars x 4 jars x 4 jars and so on) that if you are thorough you can go on for a long time.
 
can you reuse yeast in any other way. For instance rack off the wort from the yeast cake. Then add a little bit of water to help loosen up the yeast cake. Then pour the contents "slurry" into a jar for future use.
 
If you wash the yeast and shown in the other thread, does that mean that you will never have to buy yeast again?

Probably not as your later generations may not be as viable. However, there are some people who have nth generation yeasties in their fridges...
 
I have jarred unwashed yeast for later use, as well as using 1/2 a yeast cake to just pitch the wort onto.

Both have produced great results.

The jarred unwashed yeast was refridgerated for 4 months or so.

Wyeast and Whitelabs have processes to be sure, but they aren't magic.

I am sure that the old german brewers kept the same yeast going for hundreds of years without stopping by the LHBS for a smack pack.
 
I have jarred unwashed yeast for later use, as well as using 1/2 a yeast cake to just pitch the wort onto.

Both have produced great results.

The jarred unwashed yeast was refridgerated for 4 months or so.

Wyeast and Whitelabs have processes to be sure, but they aren't magic.

I am sure that the old german brewers kept the same yeast going for hundreds of years without stopping by the LHBS for a smack pack.

True, I mean if the vikings brewed beer just using the yeast left on their brew stick...
 
Exactly Skacorica.

I am not saying that fresh yeast might not have produced better results(maybe), but what are "fresh" yeast, if not yeast that have been washed and ranched?

If each Whitelabs vial has been grown from a few cells on a stir plate, I will eat my mash tun.

And even if so, couldn't we just take a few cells from a cake and do the same?
 
I flushed my last yeast cake, and I now feel guilty while reading this thread. Would it be possible to wash the yeast from the bottom of my beer bottles?
 
I flushed my last yeast cake, and I now feel guilty while reading this thread. Would it be possible to wash the yeast from the bottom of my beer bottles?

The technical answer would probably be yes, but the practical answer would be no. But you can "grow-up" the yeast from the bottom of your bottles. You start with small starters and pitch into larger ones to build up the colony. This is usually only done by brewers who want to harvest a yeast that they can't get at retail. You are much better off spending the $7 bucks buying new yeast and washing it next time, because you will spend way more than that on the DME needed to make the step up starters.
 
Ah. I guess I'll just learn to let go. I'll just flush some wort every once in a while so that the yeast I've abandoned won't go hungry.
 
Yep. Think of your carboy as West Virginia. There ain't nowhere else to go or nothin' else to do but inbreed. Over time, the inhabitants just get further from the current state of evolution.

Dude, you live in Indiana.

And yes I live in KY.

This ignorant dip****ted comment sounds like Beavis calling Butthead Dumb.

Next time you feel like generalizing about the population of an entire state, just do aus all a favor and kill yourself.

People like you are what's wrong with this country.
 

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