First Batch Update

I just racked my first brew, Amercian Creme Ale, over to a carboy secondary. I see now how much the yeast grew, and was very impressed. I liked my results so far, as when I opened the primary, it definately had a great beer smell for sure. I raked it to the secondary, and right at the end, siphoned off a small amount into a glass to taste how it was doing. I was happy with the taste, as it had a nice flavor, and am looking forward to letting it sit in the secondary for a couple weeks and then bottling it.

I brewed my second batch at the same time, and added the new brew, an American Wheat, to the yeast from my first batch. This one should ferment a lot more rapidly than the first .

Right on! That's the way to do it for sure. I find my batches take off and ferment like mad when I do that.

Cheers!

....so you just leave the yeast in the bottom of the fermenter and then add the new brew ontop of it??

Tony said:

I brewed my second batch at the same time, and added the new brew, an American Wheat, to the yeast from my first batch. This one should ferment a lot more rapidly than the first .

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Isn't that going to make your secnd batch taste very similar to the first even though they are different styles?
I was under the impression you had to stay along the same line of yeast strains to get an accurate flavor for the style......

You can make a lot of different kinds of beer with one kind of yeast. I use White Labs California Ale to ferment a lot of different beers. I also use the British Ale a lot. Not all styles have particularly strict yeast requirements...most do not. The grains and hops you put in your beer dictate most of the flavor. So I can re-use an English yeast and make a Bitter, a stout, a porter, an ESB, a pale ale, etc,etc,etc and they all taste right for their style.

In other words, most yeast is suitable for making more than one kind of beer.

Tophe96 said:

....so you just leave the yeast in the bottom of the fermenter and then add the new brew ontop of it??

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Yes. There's lots of discussion here on the subject. It's what I do every time (well, every 4 batches, I make a new starter). It's far and away the simplest way to reuse yeast and one of the best ways to kick-start your ferment.

Cheers!

Check out these threads for more discussion of reusing yeast by racking onto old slurry:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=288

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3768#post3768

Might this be FAQ-worthy? The subject of yeast re-use comes up a lot, and a FAQ question with the various methods people use seems like a good idea.

Janx said:

You can make a lot of different kinds of beer with one kind of yeast. I use White Labs California Ale to ferment a lot of different beers. I also use the British Ale a lot. Not all styles have particularly strict yeast requirements...most do not. The grains and hops you put in your beer dictate most of the flavor. So I can re-use an English yeast and make a Bitter, a stout, a porter, an ESB, a pale ale, etc,etc,etc and they all taste right for their style.

In other words, most yeast is suitable for making more than one kind of beer.

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Thanks Janx for that info...I had hoped that since the yeast I used was a kit yeast for both brews, that it would be okay. I do see that there are many "specialty" yeasts out there and would be more careful when using them over again.

Janx said:

Might this be FAQ-worthy? The subject of yeast re-use comes up a lot, and a FAQ question with the various methods people use seems like a good idea.

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Definitely. Perhaps someone should collate the different postings on the subject, and post them in a new thread, and let people go overthem to edit or whatever before submiting to faq. Or we could just get them up on FAQ and edit from there. Seems like we ought to get a buch of postings transfered over there.

*looks for rightwingnut....

tis a great trick with the yeast, i'm tossing around the idea of getting a second primary so i can do two different styles at the same time...

t1master said:

*looks for rightwingnut....

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Yeah, yeah... ! I'm actually planning something like that...just need a day with nothin' to do and a healthy batch of motivation!

t1master said:

tis a great trick with the yeast, i'm tossing around the idea of getting a second primary so i can do two different styles at the same time...

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That's what we do. Keeps variety flowing