How do I reuse yeast?

I tried to do a search but the search function on the Android app sucks.
Anyways can someone help me find resources for washing yeast and pitching on yeast cakes?
Also, can I reuse Hef (wpl320 if I remember correctly) yeast, or will most of it end up in the bottles?
Thanks for helping a noob lol

Yes you can reuse it.

Have a look at this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Perfect, thanks so much! Bookmarked this page!

if your yeast is healthy and you are using it pretty soon after your last batch you can just pitch the old yeast directly without rinsing. i save the slurry in a clean bottle, let it settle, estimate the amount of yeast cells using mrmalty.com, this is a very gross estimate but it's fine, and pitch directly into the next brew.

I'm not sure how quick ill reuse it yet. I'll probably keep it in the fridge for a little while.

Another option is top-cropping.

Basically you skim the foam off the surface of fermenting beer (2-3 days into fermentation) and store it in a sanitized jar in the fridge. Very simple.

I already missed that stage lol
I feel like that would be easier with a fermenting bucket rather than a carboy though.

TyTanium said:

Another option is top-cropping.

Basically you skim the foam off the surface of fermenting beer (2-3 days into fermentation) and store it in a sanitized jar in the fridge. Very simple.

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You get the most bang-for-your-buck by repitching it immediately, rather than storing it in the fridge. When you top-crop, you're capturing extremely healthy yeast at the height of their activity. If you're just going to seal them in a jar and put them to sleep, you might as well just wait and wash the yeast cake instead.

brewmex41 said:

I feel like that would be easier with a fermenting bucket rather than a carboy though.

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Potentially, but you'd risk oxidizing your beer. There are good descriptions in books (like White/Zainasheff's "Yeast"), but basiclaly, to collect yeast from the top of an actively fermenting ale in a carboy, you simply insert a (sanitized) stainless "straw" into the bunghole, with the tip pushed in just deep enough to touch the foamy krausen. The output end has a plastic tube running to the collection vessel, such as an Erlenmyer flask, fitted with one of those orange carboy caps with the 2 holes in it. The tube connects to one hole, with a plain old airlock on the other hole.

The pressure from the fermenting beer pushes the yeast and foam up the stainless steel "straw," through the tubing, and into the flask. The CO2 pressure then vents out the airlock atop the flask.

Washed yeast saved me last night. I did multiple batches this week and had a damaged yeast pack. Luckily I had some washed ale yeast in the fridge. My first mistake was not checking all my supplies before mashing. It was good the day prior. At 930 pm it could of got real bad had I not had washed yeast on hand.

kombat said:

You get the most bang-for-your-buck by repitching it immediately, rather than storing it in the fridge. When you top-crop, you're capturing extremely healthy yeast at the height of their activity. If you're just going to seal them in a jar and put them to sleep, you might as well just wait and wash the yeast cake instead.

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Agreed, but even if I'm not repitching immediately, I find top-cropping far easier than washing yeast.

Assuming you are using liquid yeast and making starters, you can simply make your starter 500ml larger than you need. After it ferments out and before crashing, simply pour out the excess 500 ml into a sanitized mason jar.

Place the jar in the fridge for a few days to crash. Then, in a smaller mason jar, boil water to sanitize and cool. Decant the saved yeast and pour the cake into the sanitized water, label the jar and store in fridge.

When ready, make a new starter with it and off ya to. I've been doing it this way for over a year and don't even remember the last time I bought yeast.

I have some yeast saved over 6 months and it starts up fine and ferments my beer perfectly once built up to proper pitch rate.

Would I also increase the dme?
So for a 1l starter using 1/2 cup dme would be about 3/4 cup dme for a 1 1/2l starter?

Brewmex41 said:

Would I also increase the dme?
So for a 1l starter using 1/2 cup dme would be about 3/4 cup dme for a 1 1/2l starter?

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Yes as you increase volume you increase ferment ambles to arrive at the same gravity of ~1.040 for a starter.

BtW you really should weigh the DME to be precise: 100g/L, 150g/1.5L, 200g/2L, etc

A10:1 ratio will yield a 1.040 starter with only a5-10 minute boil.

duboman said:

Yes as you increase volume you increase ferment ambles to arrive at the same gravity of ~1.040 for a starter.

BtW you really should weigh the DME to be precise: 100g/L, 150g/1.5L, 200g/2L, etc

A10:1 ratio will yield a 1.040 starter with only a5-10 minute boil.

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I didn't know that, I was just going off the steps in Palmers book. Thanks for the tip!

Cheers!

duboman - great explanations - I will be doing this tomorrow. Thanks for explaining how to do this in a very easy to understand way. It really makes sense to make a starter a little bigger (since you're making a starter anyway) and save some for a future brew (thereby saving money)!