I have a question or two about harvesting spent yeast that I want to run by all you knowledgeable folks.
It seems I have set up a cycle of sorts with my brewing. I brew every other or every third week. This means that the batch I am brewing and the batch I am kegging are very close in time (I have not secondaried any of my beers yet, I usually just let them "finish" in the keg). I usually rack the finished batch on a friday and brew on a saturday. I would like to try reusing my yeast. I know that I could just put the new batch on top of the old yeast cake and may try this with my current setup as I am going from a light cream ale to a little fuller APA. My question come as follows:
1. how "old" of a yeast cake can I just add onto? My 2 week old cream ale cake I would think would be okay, but what about 3 or 4 week old cakes?
2. If I rack off the cake on a friday and capture the yeast with sterile water, how long can I wait to use it before making a starter? If I use it on saturday? Sunday? I would think that if I waited till the next weekend, then I would need to rejuvinate it with a starter? Do I need to make a starter with a yeast cake no matter what?
It seems I have set up a cycle of sorts with my brewing. I brew every other or every third week. This means that the batch I am brewing and the batch I am kegging are very close in time (I have not secondaried any of my beers yet, I usually just let them "finish" in the keg). I usually rack the finished batch on a friday and brew on a saturday. I would like to try reusing my yeast. I know that I could just put the new batch on top of the old yeast cake and may try this with my current setup as I am going from a light cream ale to a little fuller APA. My question come as follows:
1. how "old" of a yeast cake can I just add onto? My 2 week old cream ale cake I would think would be okay, but what about 3 or 4 week old cakes?
2. If I rack off the cake on a friday and capture the yeast with sterile water, how long can I wait to use it before making a starter? If I use it on saturday? Sunday? I would think that if I waited till the next weekend, then I would need to rejuvinate it with a starter? Do I need to make a starter with a yeast cake no matter what?