How many times can I do this...reusing yeast

Desert_Sky · Aug 15, 2006

Lately Ive gotten into the habit of having a 1.040 DME mix ready for when I bottle or keg. I swirl the little bit of yeast left in the carboy and pour a bit into my starter flask to reuse the yeast. Its been working great so far.

But is there a rule of thumb for how many times I want to do this before I would want to start over with fresh yeast? Thanks

:mug:

Glibbidy · Aug 15, 2006

My friend who is a pro advised that five is the magic number, after five the yeast can/will start to get freaky.

Denny's Evil Concoctions · Aug 15, 2006

That is what was also advised by wyeast.

clayof2day · Aug 15, 2006

Most people also advise harvesting from the primary, not the secondary. Although its much cleaner out of hte secondary, you are isolating the least flocculant of the bunch (this, I'm told, is the drawback). I did it before I heard that and had no problems, but I went out 2 generations on that yeast.

Desert_Sky · Aug 15, 2006

clayof2day said:
Most people also advise harvesting from the primary, not the secondary. Although its much cleaner out of hte secondary, you are isolating the least flocculant of the bunch (this, I'm told, is the drawback). I did it before I heard that and had no problems, but I went out 2 generations on that yeast.

thats a good point. I didnt even think of that. But your right, I was doing it from the secondary so I didnt really have to wash alot of trubb out.

homebrewer_99 · Aug 15, 2006

I do 5 from the primary only.

alemonkey · Aug 16, 2006

5 or 6 times and always out of the primary. So I've been told. Personally, I've never gone beyond 4 uses.

How many times can I do this...reusing yeast

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How many times can I do this...reusing yeast

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