Reusing yeast

KENfromMI said:

So what would you use for an Octoberfest but using an ale yeast and temperatures?

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I've used 1007 and 2112 for Oktoberfests and fermented in the low 60's and both Oktoberfests turned out very nicely.

Repitching rules:

Wort volume in liters x gravity in Plato = volume of slurry in ml.
Ex: 5.7 g @ 1.060 SG =
21.57 l x 15ºP = 323.5 ml
If you'd like: Ale x .75 Lager x 1.5

55x11 said:

Yes. the bottom white-ish layer is your good yeast. If you look carefully, there may be a stratification into a slightly darker layer at the very bottom, this is dead yeast and proteins and other "junk" you don't want.



I would say you could be close to 1 billion cells per 1 ml. But it's just a guess.



https://www.wyeastlab.com/com-yeast-harvest.cfm

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Thanks for the explanation and the link

55x11 said:

Yes. the bottom white-ish layer is your good yeast. If you look carefully, there may be a stratification into a slightly darker layer at the very bottom, this is dead yeast and proteins and other "junk" you don't want.



I would say you could be close to 1 billion cells per 1 ml. But it's just a guess.



https://www.wyeastlab.com/com-yeast-harvest.cfm

Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation and the link

z-bob said:

I'm planning to save the S-04 sediment from my current batch to use in the next. So I'm kind of thinking out-loud here more than answering the question...

How long did it take for those jars to settle? The stuff in the bottom is hops, coagulated malt proteins, dead yeast, live yeast, and I don't know what all. The cloudy liquid above is cloudy because it has yeast in it (both dead and alive) and other particles that haven't settled out yet. If you let it sit long enough the liquid on top will clear nice and bright.

What I'm planning to do (unless I learn otherwise from this thread) is when I get ready to pitch the yeast, I'll shake up one of the jars, let it settle for an hour or so (as it warms to room temperature), then use the cloudy liquid at the top and discard the sediment. I know i won't be able to pour it w/o getting some sediment, but that's okay. You could even just shake the jar and dump the whole thing in,

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Sorry took so long to reply but after I got it in the jars it went straight into the fridge and I didn't look at it for a couple days so don't really know how long it took to separate....

For this last batch, I re-pitched yeast from my Oktoberbeast ale into my RIS. What I did was leave a few ounces of beer in the FV plus added 2 cups of water I had previously boiled & cooled. I swirled that around & dumped the liquid out into a 1-qt Mason jar. I let that sit for about an hour, and then poured off the liquid into a 1-pint Mason jar. Most of the trub stayed in the larger jar, so after just a little while, I slowly swirled the liquid around and carefully poured that off into two 1-cup jelly jars. No trub in these, just a nice compact layer of yeast at the bottom. I used one of these straight into my RIS wort and once fermentation started, it took off like a rocket. I won't re-use this yeast but I have the other jar in the fridge, as well as the other half of the dry Notty pack in the freezer. It isn't a big savings, but not paying for yeast every brew is kind of nice.

Yooper said:

Yes. But I only use a couple of dry strains anyway- BRY-97 and S05- and I'm not crazy about either of them. They are more "emergency back up" strains that I don't love and rarely will use if I can avoid it.

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Why would you? I am a big fan of Notty, but at under $2 a pack why would you reuse? White labs yeast I can keep going for years, just make a starter, drain it before pitching, and refill the (sanitized tube) with the sludge. Then grow that into the next starter. I have a vial of white labs British ale yeast (I use a lot) I bought 5 years ago, it still makes good starters.

My process is make a starter in a 2L flask with 1000 ML water and 1 cup DME, after it is done let sit for a day and settle, pour it off to 350ml then mix. fill the WL vial with the mix and pitch the rest, the vials stay viable in the fridge for months, I have made starters with pure grey yeast (there were a few live ones in there and just took longer to get going) the live ones use the dead for food and make a good starter, if they turn black in the vile toss em.

So... what percentage of a white labs 35ml tube would need to be dense settled *post starter* yeast for it to hold roughly 100b cells?