Is it possible to use the yeast sediment at the bottom of a homebrew as a starter?

OK, this question may very well belie my ignorance - so be it

Can one simply pour the accumulated yeast sediment from a bottle of homebrew into a new batch of homebrew as a starter? Would it work at all? Only if the beer was relatively fresh, maybe?

I'm guessing no because nobody seems to do this, but why?

I became curious because the yeast at the bottom of my bottles of homebrew seems so clean.

--Pow

You can do it with bottle conditioned commercial brews so I'd bet you could with a homebrew, but why bother. If you want to reuse yeast, just wash the yeast cake from your primary.

I tell you what, I like the idea. Perhaps we could save that last 1/4" + its yeast in a jar in the fridge, and pitch it for your next beer...

+1 on the question.

c.n.budz said:

You can do it with bottle conditioned commercial brews so I'd bet you could with a homebrew, but why bother. If you want to reuse yeast, just wash the yeast cake from your primary.

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I guess I should look up how to wash the yeast, but I've been under the impression that it's a little more difficult than just collecting the last 1/4" of each homebrew. I'm going to do something like this soon, so here goes... *searches "yeast washing"*

Sure, it can be done. But when you say "pour it into a new batch", I think you're mis-speaking (mis-typing?). You wouldn't pour that tiny amount of yeast straight into the wort and expect it to do much. You'd want to make an actual starter---boil up a small batch of wort several days prior, pitch the bottle yeast, and let the yeast multiply...

Thanks for the replies, I may well try it. and .. I swear you guys couldn't answer questions any faster if you were a paid brewing emergency response team

--Pow

Yes is the short answer...

It would be much easier to wash yeast from the carboy.
Take a look at this link...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=41768&highlight=yeast+washing

I'd heard "Yeast washing" mentioned before - being new to this, I had no idea what people were referring to. Now I know.

--Pow

That thread about yeast washing is great, it give all the information you'd need.

Using the yeast from a bottle is a bit more difficult. You'd have to increase the volume step by step and there is a better chance of an infection due to bacteria or wild yeast possibly growing much faster that the 'good' yeast. It is possible, but washing and using the yeast from the cake in the primary is definitely much easier and more reliable. (not to mention cheaper, you'd need more flasks/jars/bottles and sanitizing stuff and DME to use from the bottle, and there's a chance that you won't get enough of a population for a good pitch)

Here's a pretty good how-to on culturing yeast from bottles.

http://***********/departments/1361.html

Powchekny said:

brewing emergency response team

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B.E.R.T. !!!
I like it!

I've done it and say go for it with the following caveats.

1) You better be really sure about your sanitation process throughout

2) You've selected the least floculant yeast so be prepared to wait a long time for your beer to clear.

GT

EDIT: dbl post

GT

I have heard that you can just pour some fresh wort on top of a yeast cake in a primary. I have a stout fermenting right now, and when i rack to the secondary i wanted to pour a new batch into the primary and keep it going. should i follow the yeast washing instructions or will this work also?

sipNswirl said:

I have heard that you can just pour some fresh wort on top of a yeast cake in a primary. I have a stout fermenting right now, and when i rack to the secondary i wanted to pour a new batch into the primary and keep it going. should i follow the yeast washing instructions or will this work also?

Click to expand...

While this is common practice it won't necessarily make great beer. If your first beer has an OG greater then about 1.045 your yeast are stressed out. If you over pitch, which is highly likely, you won't get much, if any, reproduction which will influence the flavour of your beer. Your sanitation must also be excellent. It is a good strategy if you want to make a big lager - say a dopplebock. You could brew a pilsner around 1.035-1.040 and you effectively have a 5g starter which would be close to what you need.

GT

Do you still need to and more yeast in or is the cake enough