Reusing Yeast with Polyclar in it...

I had some left over yeast at the bottom on my bucket after bottling. I dumped my new batch on top of the settled yeast from the previous batch. I know people have done this before with success.

It wasn't until afterward that I remembered that I had used polyclar in the previous batch for clarity. Will this affect the yeasts ability to ferment my new batch?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Most washed yeast come from the primary.

Polyclar is used in the secondary.

Washed/reusing yeast from a secondary is not recommended because it is older and used up.

homebrewer_99 said:

Most washed yeast come from the primary.

Polyclar is used in the secondary.

Washed/reusing yeast from a secondary is not recommended because it is older and used up.

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Ahhhhh. OK I assume you are saying I will have trouble ferminting. But will that trouble be because I am using yeast left from secondary or because there is polyclar mixed in with the yeast or both?

No, the only problem is you will be using used up yeast.

You can use yeast from a secondary, but it will not be as good as if you used yeast from the primary (where it was more active instead of dying...).

I don't see much problem with using yeast from the secondary. Palmer says he uses yeast from the secondary when he's washing yeast. He says that in theory over time you'd be propagating the less flocculate yeast but I see no issue re-using it one time.

I don't know if polyclar will affect anything though, i have not used that before

Why do you think the yeast in secondary is 'used up' or dead? Yeast may not do much fermenting during secondary, but if it was dead it wouldn't do any conditioning either. It's probably not good to go using yeast if the beer's been in secondary for many months or years, but if it's only been in there a month or less there should be plenty of useful yeast.

OK, it's not used up or dead, it's just not the best, freshest, or most active to use.

With the Polyclar already in there you would be trying to ferment and clear at the same time.

conpewter: as for "Palmer says he uses yeast from the secondary when he's washing yeast. He says that in theory over time you'd be propagating the less flocculate yeast but I see no issue re-using it one time."

Why would you want LESS flocculate yeast? If you are brewing a weizen you would want the yeast to stay in suspension.

Maybe he doesn't do secondaries or filter either, but that doesn't make either practice wrong.

I'll stick to washing yeast from the primary.

I don't wash my yeast, I just dump the trube from the primary into a bottle and use it for 2-3 starters for additional batches. Yeast is kinda cheap anyhow but if you are planning on washing your yeast why not wait for full krausen and rack to 2nd leaving the trube behind. Of course you'd end up racking to 3rd but your yeast in 2nd wouldn't be as less flocculant and there would be less trube to wash off the yeast. Anyhow, just food for thought. Does this idea make any sense?

Polyclar will not change the way the yeast works.

"Removes polyphenolic compounds and oxidised melanoidins. This means that when used in beer it will remove haze-causing husk tannins and oxidised compounds that contribute to off flavours."

david_42 said:

Polyclar will not change the way the yeast works.

"Removes polyphenolic compounds and oxidised melanoidins. This means that when used in beer it will remove haze-causing husk tannins and oxidised compounds that contribute to off flavours."

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Ok cool, that was my main concern. I understand basically how polyclar works and I was just worried that it might trap my yeast at the bottom of the fermenter.

A reasonable concern as there are finings that would do exactly that, but Polyclar isn't one of them.