two yeast questions: pitching temp and reusing

Hi,
I have been brewing for 1 1/2 years now - switched to All Grain in January and was going to try to reuse yeast for the first time...
I have two yeast questions.

One: on the White Labs vials, it says - keep the temp over 70 until fermentation starts; yet, when I brew Belgian ales, everyone says pitch it in the 60s and then let it rise. Which is right?
If I pitch at 78 and then it cools to 68 overnight and then I see the yeast propagating in the bottom of the carboy, and it's at 68 when it's high krausen, does that mean low fusels, or does pitching temp create fusels?

Two: I brewed an Pale Ale (about 5% ABV) and had siphoned the wort into the fermenter, so there was little hop presence in the yeast at bottling; I took the last liter of beer and remaining yeast, swirled it and siphoned it into a 64 oz sanitized container, covered it and it's in my fridge.

Is that correct so far?

I was going to try to use this to brew a big beer this weekend (the Old Monster Barleywine from Jamil's book). Do I just warm it up to room temp over 3-6 hours and then pitch the whole thing - or do I try and just pour the yeast in, without the beer?

Thanks a lot! This site is incredibly friendly and helpful to newbies like myself.

The repitch sounds right, just be sure to measure out the needed amount for the beer, you likely won't need all of it.

As for pitching temp I never like my beer to drop temp till it's done fermenting. So I start cool and let it warm up, always.

Thanks for the response!
How do I know how much to pitch when I've got such a big slurry, is that the right word?
Go to Mr. Malty? or is it a part of my ProMash program that I haven't learned yet?

I don't use promash so I am not sure if it has a pitching rate calculator. But the Mr Malty site and the Wyeast site both have free flash versions of the same calculator.

When i washed yeast, I got 3-5 small mason jars each with slightly more yeast than what you get in a white labs vial.

here's a guide on washing though you probably already saw it
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

patience and crash cooling in the fridge will help the layers form. get as much trub off the yeast as possible.

thanks for the thread link; it was awesome and hugely informative

the only question I have is: when you put the yeast from the primary into a new vessel, does it have to be filled to the top of the vessel or can the 64 oz vessel I used, be filled with yeast and beer?

to restate, did I ruin my yeast by putting it in a vessel and not filling it to that top? it (the yeast) has separated and is covered by beer, but above the beer is nada

thanks!

It should be fine. The beer on top will obviously be oxidized, but so what? You'll be racking it off anyway.

Keep in mind that yeast stored this way is going to degrade over time.

I agree that ferm temps should either go from cool to warmer, or stay steady. Yeast do not like drops in temperature....

Michael

leoglenwood said:

thanks for the thread link; it was awesome and hugely informative

the only question I have is: when you put the yeast from the primary into a new vessel, does it have to be filled to the top of the vessel or can the 64 oz vessel I used, be filled with yeast and beer?

to restate, did I ruin my yeast by putting it in a vessel and not filling it to that top? it (the yeast) has separated and is covered by beer, but above the beer is nada

thanks!

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