How long is a yeast cake good for in a carboy?

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MVKTR2

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I bottled Thursday night, put the lid back on my fermenter leaving the yeast cake inside. How long is this yeast cake good for in this environment? I've done it in the past, but brewed the next day. That was impossible this time, but I do want to brew Mon. or Tues. meaning it would be in the fermenter waiting on bier for 4 or 5 days. Is that okay?

Schlante,
Phillip
 
Sounds like I won't be using it! If I get a chance tonight I'll check on it to see if it's okay, if so I'll wash it tonight!

Thanks for the input.

Schlante,
Phillip
 
If possible, I always just wait to rack beer off of a cake that I'm going to reuse until right before I need to pitch. If that's not possible then you can always leave an inch or 2 of beer on it for short term storage, or wash it for long term.
 
I've re-used yeast many times where I racked the beer off but couldn't brew for another two weeks. With an airlock, it is fine. It will just hang out. I have never heard of it getting nasty. Leave an airlock on and don't let it get to over 75F and you'll be fine. With the lager yeast, just put it back where you fermented in the first place. I put the carboy back in the fridge at 45F with an airlock and use when ready. Never had any problems or funky stuff. ...and I'm talking years of doing this.
 
I've re-used yeast many times where I racked the beer off but couldn't brew for another two weeks. With an airlock, it is fine. It will just hang out. I have never heard of it getting nasty. Leave an airlock on and don't let it get to over 75F and you'll be fine. With the lager yeast, just put it back where you fermented in the first place. I put the carboy back in the fridge at 45F with an airlock and use when ready. Never had any problems or funky stuff. ...and I'm talking years of doing this.

+1

I have left it for 2 weeks with almost no beer left on top. The last batch which I did not even plan on reusing, was left a about 70 degrees for 2 weeks in a plastic bucket fermenter with no airlock. (I asked my dad to wash it out while I was gone and he never did) And I opened it expecting something nasty and was pleasantly surprised and thought "wow this beer is going to be pretty good!"
 
Not saying its not better to leave a little beer in there and store at a cooler temp just that in my experiences yeast doesn't go bad that fast especially in a glass fermenter. Even without an airlock CO2 is heaver than air so it will settle creating a barrier of sorts.
 
I have also left a cake in a carboy with the stopper in for 2 weeks at 68-70 and pitched on it, turned out great and I had good activity after a few hours. I have even left it in for a little over a month once but added a little boiled down dme to feed it at 2 weeks and still turned out great. I would now recommend washing and sticking it in the fridge over this but goes to show that yeast is hearty stuff.
 
If your process is clean it will last for several weeks. Keeping it cold is much better if you're going to be storing it for an extended period. I've heard that you lose about 25% viability a week. I pitched an IPA on a 4 week old room temp yeast cake a few months ago. The IPA turned out fine, it finished a little high, it was likely a combination of high mash temp and the low viability of the yeast after 4 weeks at room temp.

I don't know if you've brewed yet, but the yeast should be just fine to pitch on after less than a week. Pull a sample with a sanitized instrument. Smell it and taste it. If you don't have any off flavors, use it.
 
can i rack a beer off a yeast cake and leave it in the carboy at 40 degrees with a layer of beer on top of it for up to two weeks?
 
If you have the option of purging again with CO2 and putting the airlock back on I'd do that. That will keep some nasties at bay longer. That said I have never repitched onto a cake but have left the cake around for a couple weeks with a little beer on it with the intention of doing so and did not get any off smells or pellicles forming.
 
2 months.


No joke.

It was all cracked and dry, but I figure nottingham is all dried out.

No problem whatsoever.

36 hours to fermentation activity, perfect fermentation, attenuation, and flavor profile.

With an airlock in a sanitized bucket, why would it go bad?
 
These are yeast. Yeast don't LIKE TO DIE. They perfer to go DORMANT. There are sooo many homebrew myths circulating on this forum its not even funny.

There is a lot I don't know, but as a biologist there are SOMETHING I do know. Your little White labs yeast? they sit in a fridge for months on end. I've had some in my fridge for a year and they still pitch just fine..(Were talking 9 months past "best use by date"). I leave almost no beer on my yeast cakes and re-pitch 2-3 weeks later into the same carboy regularly (I will use the same yeast cake 3-4 times also) and have very little problems.

Just remember to always plan ahead though. First beer is almost always an pale ale, followed by a stronger slightly darker india pale ale, then usually a more amber up in the air beer, and finally a stout...and if you want you can always brew another stout on a stout no problem.

after 4 brews though the cake/trub gets pretty darn huge though :p Then its time for a new vial.
 
So I have a 1.060 Wicked Special Bitter that's been in the fermentor (S-05) for 2 weeks. Reading this thread has got me thinking that I'll brew some kind of American Nut Brown this weekend and rack onto that yeast cake. Any suggestions? I've got Magnum, Nugget & Cascade whole hops in the freezer. By reusing this yeast I can make this one for the price of grain <$20... Sweet.

Why does this beer being racked onto the cake need to be bigger (OG) and darker (SRM)?

How much bigger and darker are acceptable?
 
I don't think the beer has to be bigger, but darker helps. There is going to be a huge amount of trub left over that isn't just yeast, and it will affect teh flavor profile. But if you start with a successively darker beers your more likely to cover it up each time.

If you are trying to clone a specific beer...this may not be the method for you. But if you want to make ballpark beers, want to save on time and money, and just want some beer I feel its the way to go.
 
Bigger is not better by any any means, darker is commonly done so that it covers up the original.

You couldn't do a pale ale on a stout yeast cake without some serious rinsing, risking contamination.

I generally pour off half or so of the yeast cake.

Overpitching is uncommon, but certainly possible on a healthy cake.
 
When using a yeast cake, how do you introduce oxygen? Is it OK to aerate it?
Not really necesary, since the yeast have already reproduce, it is active and healthy... Just rock it a beat to get it on suspension.

Geez, I didn´t knew there was that much different opinions in this matter. I repitch yeast cakes all the time, 3-4 times each (I use s04). Never a problem, not even decrease in taste and aroma profile. As I said before, you're pouring your beer on a big-active-healthy yeast cake... 100% win for me.
 
So this will be my first re-pitch on a yeast cake (Safale US-05) this weekend. As I said earlier I've got a 1.060 Wicked Special Bitter that has been in the primary (Ale pail) for three weeks. I'm going to brew a 1.048 American Brown and rack it onto that yeast after I rack the bitter over for bottling.

So nothing to sweat here right? Should I sanitize the upper part of the bucket and lid at least? Are folks just dumping the wort onto the cake and shaking the hell out of it?

Should I remove a portion of the yeast cake before racking to allow for some growth?

I'm committed to this one but could use some reassurance.

Thanks guys!
 
I now that most of you in USA have some fancy sanitizers but I've never use them, so I can't tell you.
I use better bottles, I just spray them with a solution 70% alcohol - 30% H2O on the top (from the outside pbviously) and never had a problem.
If you are using a bucket, I think I'll just spray the lid and the edge of the bucket.
And please read the post above yours... DON'T SHAKE THE HELL OUT OF IT!!!
(you have more than enough yeast, no nead for reproduction!!! Just go for the fun :rockin:).
Just shake enough to get the cake in suspension again.
I pretty shure you're going to see some nice yeast action in 1/2 hour.
 
Doughed in!... "Brown Trout Pee - American Wicked Brown Ale"

7# Maris Otter
.75#Crystal 60L
.5# Special Roast
.5# Toasted Oats
.25# British Chocolate

Mashing as I type at 152degF. Hit the mash #s on the head. Will collect 6 gallons to boil down to 5. Hop schedule follows:

.75oz Magnum 60m
1oz Nugget at 15m
1.25oz Cascade at flame out

Irish Moss and Wyeast Nutrient at 15m

I'll "no chill" this till tomorrow morning and rack onto that S-05 yeast cake. I just checked out the episode of Basic Brewing video where they re-pitched a pumpkin ale wort onto a yeast cake from a robust porter for even more reassurance.

Woo Hoo!
 
daveyohill, don't worry about sanitizing the bucket or lid, if your previous batch was clean, the fermenter is clean.

As for using all of the yeast cake vs removing part of it. It really depends on the situation. If you're pitching a large bier onto a yeast cake from a small bier, leave it all in. If you're repitching similar sized beers it's recommended by many that you remove some, even most of the yeast cake. This is particularly important if you're dealing with non-neutral yeast strains or styles where you desire flavor impact from the yeast such as estery english ales, Belgians, or anything a needed yeast character. Thus it's situational dependent as to wether you use all the cake or remove some/most.

As for aerating the wort. I'm of the opinion that oxygen in the wort is always a good thing... unless your wort has become bier ;)! Oxygenating the wort will not hurt the yeast and will give you a stronger more vigorous fermentation cycle. Boiled cooled wort has a dearth of oxygen, not a good thing for fermentation no matter the cell count. Besides, even in a neutral yeast some cell replication is a good thing.

Schlante,
Phillip
 
Absolutely you want air and cell production.

Remove some and pour the new wort in from 4 feet up, letting it get all frothy, and stirring up the cake.
 
YIKES! I racked onto that S-05 yeast cake at 11:30 this morning. I poured the wort through a strainer to catch the hops and break matter and then rocked the bucket a bit after the lid was on. It's 12:53 and we've got serious airlock activity! The airlock is one bubble after another. I put the fermentor in a large plastic "tote" and will loosely drape a trash bag over it to prepare for blowoff.

Man that took off!
 
Well I had to take some action with this fermentation. The ferm. temp. went from 70degF to 78degF within a couple hours. I set up the fermentor and tote in my bathtub and filled the tote with 62degF water to cool this thing down. Here's hoping it will level out around 65 - 68.

So what have I learned from this?
 
Update... I left that fermentor in the water filled tote till around 9:00PM. The temp was steady at 65degF. I removed it from the water and this morning with ambient room temp at 62degF the beer is chugging along at 70degF.

This Brown's OG was 1.056 and was mashed at 150-152degF so I'm figuring with this rather fermentable wort and amounts of yeast and oxygen this beer should be done fermenting sometime around 10:00 this morning! Just kidding. But what do I know?

After watching that episode of Basic Brewing Video where they racked that mid gravity pumpkin ale onto the whole yeast cake from a robust porter I figured my similar gravity Brown would be just fine. Time will tell. Aside from that screaming kick off temp I think the whole experience is awesome. Next time I'll remove 50% of the yeast (wash/rinsing it), and prepare for fermentation temp control for the first 12-24 hours. Piece of cake..."yeast cake" that is! Thanks.

This beer will spend a couple weeks in primary then I'll bottle it up. I can't wait to taste this one.
 
Great, I'm happy for you. I have a lot of fun when I try doing new/different things.
I hope you keep us informed next time as well.

Cheers.
 
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