Keeping yeast, re-using yeast, saving $$

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Mike-H

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
225
Reaction score
9
Location
Syracuse, NY
I have some yeasty questions. I thought I remember people saying they used yeast from a previous batch. Considering AHS sells white labs for $6.00, this would be some savings. How is this done? How long can you keep it? Would it be a bad idea for a newbie? If you have any good links to this please post :):mug:
 
search this forum for "yeast washing".


or, do what I personally believe to be a lot easier and make a very large starter with your yeast. pitch half in a batch of beer and save the other half in a sanitized soda bottle in the fridge. next time you need that yeast, either warm and pitch the contents of the bottle, or make another starter and again save half of it.
 
Awesome, I think i'll be making my own yeast now, doesnt seem that hard. Anyone want to buy some white labs yeast for $2.00 lol j/k
 
jackle:

some people wash the yeast.

here's what i do and i haven't had any problems so far.

I collect the yeast slurry into 20 oz corona bottles leaving an inch or so of liwuid on top. i also do not fill the bottles all the way up. i cap the bottles, label and date them, and place them in the fridge.

yeast1.jpg


now what you will hear ppl say is "you need to burp them" but i don't and it works just fine. you'll also hear ppl say to wash the yeast but i do not with no problems.
 
I agree with Brew Head although I find 20oz PET soda bottles more convenient. You can also split a batch into individual bottles by pouring off the beer, adding sanitised water, mixing well and dividing between the bottles then topping up with more sanitised water. Its more important to make a starter each time if you do this particularly if you've kept them for some time.
 
I just pour the slurry from a primary fermentation into two or three sanitised bottles, seal them and throw them in the fridge. Four batches or so is enough economy for me from a WL tube.
 
mysterio said:
I just pour the slurry from a primary fermentation into two or three sanitised bottles, seal them and throw them in the fridge. Four batches or so is enough economy for me from a WL tube.

Ya know, I'm wondering if it's worth the mess and hassle of washing. This sounds like a good idea. 5 brews with 1 batch. Anyone care to tell us why this wouldn't be a good idea?
 
Good point. I do notice that within 1hr of transfering to primary there is a "little" bit of trub. Might be the yeast settling and getting acclimated?

I wouldn't imagine my hot/cold break makes it to the primary. I use a hop-bag and I don't think much of that makes it either. I have a good amount of crap in the bottom of my keggle after a swirl and drain.
 
the_bird said:
You really want to add the old hops, break material, and other trub to the new brew?
This isnt a problem if you use a bucket type FV and are able to skim the krausen ;)
 
I've tried both washing and pitching the trub. Niether way produced good beer for me. But I'm not giving up. I'm going to keep trying and experimenting w/it.
 
the_bird said:
You really want to add the old hops, break material, and other trub to the new brew?

I reckon it's just a mental hurdle you have to get over!

A little bit of old trub doesn't bother me or the beer.

Pitching a lager, or a high gravity brew onto an old yeast/trub cake is standard advice in most brewing texts, so how come this is ok and not a cupfull of sludge?
 
mysterio said:
I reckon it's just a mental hurdle you have to get over!

A little bit of old trub doesn't bother me or the beer.

Pitching a lager, or a high gravity brew onto an old yeast/trub cake is standard advice in most brewing texts, so how come this is ok and not a cupfull of sludge?


FWIW, I did this twice and it worked nicely. In fact, one of the times I used the yeast cake to ferment another batch of the same recipe. The second batch, with the trub and break and whatever else, tasted a lot better. I'm not going to say that the reuse of the yeast was definitely causal, it could have been something else, but the reuse definitely didn't hurt it.


...and I saved 6 bucks. Mwuhahahaha! Ahem. Right. Carry on.

monk
 
brewhead said:
jackle:

some people wash the yeast.

here's what i do and i haven't had any problems so far.

I collect the yeast slurry into 20 oz corona bottles leaving an inch or so of liwuid on top. i also do not fill the bottles all the way up. i cap the bottles, label and date them, and place them in the fridge.

yeast1.jpg


now what you will hear ppl say is "you need to burp them" but i don't and it works just fine. you'll also hear ppl say to wash the yeast but i do not with no problems.

can you do this with wine?

let's say normally you would use 5g dry yeast to start. Do you use the same amount when you start a new batch with yeast you saved from a previous batch?
 
boo boo said:
You can use yeast until you notice off flavors or changes in your fermentation.
I reuse yeast cakes when possible but as I brew different styles that require different yeasts, I just prefer to freeze my yeast and culture from that.
i use this method http://www.ipass.net/mpdixon/Homebrew/Freezing%20Yeast.htm

so to prepare yeast after it has been frozen or been sitting in fridge, you just bring to room temperature, add a little bit of whatever you plan to ferment, and wait for it to bubble co2?
 
mysterio said:
I just pour the slurry from a primary fermentation into two or three sanitised bottles, seal them and throw them in the fridge. Four batches or so is enough economy for me from a WL tube.

Do you make a starter with these before pitching, or just let the slurry warm up and pitch it?
 
ilikebeer said:
so to prepare yeast after it has been frozen or been sitting in fridge, you just bring to room temperature, add a little bit of whatever you plan to ferment, and wait for it to bubble co2?

I bring to room temps and pitch into a starter. Not very much yeast in a test tube.
 
TheJadedDog said:
Do you make a starter with these before pitching, or just let the slurry warm up and pitch it?

Always make a starter. I know we've all gotten away without doing one, but why chance it? If you've got bubbles you can brew!

I've done the "saved trub" thing for a while and haven't had any issues. I've seen that you want to use the saved yeast/trub within a month, but I've used 2 month old saved yeast without any problems.
 
Jim Karr said:
That was my question....how long can you store trub in a sealed bottle in the fridge, and still have it perform OK?

As long as your stored yeast don't use up too much of the much needed glycogen, then you are good to go.
If you are storeing for longer than 3 weeks then I recommend going with a starter to access the yeast before pitching/brewing.
 
Back
Top