plastic carboys and reused yeast

I did my first all grain about 1 1/2 months ago, and it was awesome. It was by far the best beer I've ever done, and one of the best beer's I've ever tasted. I then very confidently tried to brew two more. Both of them have not turned out very well. Both were made with recipes I got on-line, and they both used the yeast slurry from the first AG batch I did.

The problem is that they both have kind of a yeasty flavor, and they are both higher in Specific Gravity than I was expecting, and almost too sweet. They both started around 1.050 SG, but one is only 1.020, and the other is 1.012. I would expect them both to be around 1.008 or so by now. In addition to the yeasty flavor, they also don't have a very good beer flavor. In some sense, it almost tastes like yeasty wort rather than beer. I'm wondering if they did not ferment completely because I did not use enought yeast (insufficient from the slurry), but at the same time they are too yeasty flavored. In both cases I added extra wort to the slurry to make about 8 oz of starter.

Does anyone have any ideas, or similar experiences. I would like to cultivate yeast more rather than always have to buy a brand new batch. I don't think the yeast was spoiled by batceria (it smelled and tasted fine), but I still think that yeast might have been part of the problem.

Does anyone also have experience with plastic carboys. The one's I have, have made both great and terrible beer, and they are designed for brewing, but just curious what the general opinion out there is. Thanks in advance

Most of my (plastic) primary buckets are over 10 years old. I have not had any problems with them.

As for your brews...did you wash your yeast or just pitch your wort on top of the yeast cake? I find it best to wash your yeast first. REASON: you get rid of all the dead proteins and hop particles and end up with pure yeast.

As for your sweet brews, the obvious solution to your problem was you didn't hop enough. All brew is sweet. You have to add the bittering hops to create the proper balance.

Be sure to take good notes about all your processes and sooner (than later) you'll realize where you are going wrong. After you maintain a proper level of expertise and control over your brews your bad/off brews will be years apart. Maybe by then you'll also learn how to salvage them.

I've noticed that plastic is harder to clean that glass and stainless steel. Besides that, I would recommend you use that yeast, atleast 5 times... and more if it becomes better. Welcome to the world of All Grain, its b-e-a-utiful :>

was that yeast from the primary or secondary???
Homebrew 99 talk to me about "WASHING" your yeast I have been very succsessful in repitching from my primary buckets 10 brews is my max (I just love the cost savings)I have never known anyone who washes there yeast, I have heard of it, just never done it how do you do it???
Thanks
JJ

I've never had a problem using the yeast cake from a previous brew just as is - no washing. But I use glass. I think I'd definitely want to 'wash' the yeast if I were using a plastic primary.

Here's a link to a previous thread on yeast washing.

jaybird said:

was that yeast from the primary or secondary???
Homebrew 99 talk to me about "WASHING" your yeast I have been very succsessful in repitching from my primary buckets 10 brews is my max (I just love the cost savings)I have never known anyone who washes there yeast, I have heard of it, just never done it how do you do it??? Thanks JJ

Click to expand...

Take the yeast from the primary. Basically, when you "wash yeast" you are separating all the sugars, proteins and trub from your yeast making it pure again. Some people will jar their trub/yeast cake, but they have to keep venting it because it's still fermenting. Washing your yeast stops that process.

Real quick explanation...boil and cool about 1/2 gal water and sanitize a couple 1 gal jugs/glass jars.

Pour half of the water into the trub and mix with your yeast cake in the primary after you've racked.

After 10 mins there will be a lot of garbage in the bottom of the jug/jar.

Pour off the water into a second jar. Pour the garbage down the drain.

Wait another 10-20 mins and pour off the cloudy liquid (the cloudiness is the yeast in suspension) into another jar (the first one resanitized) and dispose of the garbage.

If most of the garbage (trub) is gone then add the remaining water to the jar and mix. The beer you had mixed in with the yeast should now be diluted enough that the water is getting clearer.

Let this sit for about an hour and the yeast will fall out of the liquid. From here you can pour off most of the liquid and transfer your yeast to small containers. I use baby food jars. I usually get about 2-3 jars from a batch.

Be sure to label them with the type of yeast, date, batch number(s) it came from, etc. Use these to make new starters for future brews.

Now this is why I joined the fourm thanks for the tip. How long can you keep the yeast this way, and at what temp . Do you autoclave the baby jars for sanitation???
JJ

For the first time, I just tried to re-use my last batch. Cali Ale Yeast in plastic bucket. Its been nearly 18 hours and I don't see any activity. I had a blow off setup but didn't see anything happen. I put the airlock back on to see I could tell if anything was happening. I'm thinking the heat spell last week damaged it perhaps?

This is about my 10th all grain, and never had a problem with any ferments, some better than others, but this is the first time re-use. Thinking of dumping my starter I made from the remains yesterday but its a different yeast.

What do you think?

I just started back in brewing and came across The Better Bottle at Austin Homebrew. It's a PET carboy and I must say it is sweet. Easy to clean and light as a feather. I've sold all my glass carboys and switched over to Better Bottle PET Carboys. My back will thank me when I lower a full one into a chest freezer for lagering.

Sorry, I don't know how long you've been waiting for a reply.

I just sanitize the baby food jars just like I would anything else.

As long as it's sealed it last months, but most of the time I've reused them by then.

I had my yeast from an APA in a pint jar in the icebox for a month. It was American 1056. I brewed a American brown the otherday and just let the yeast sit out to room temp and pitched the whole pint. It took 7hrs for it to start. I did'nt know I was suppose to wash the yeast but it tasted very good when it went to secondary. Most have told me not to keep it longer than a month. Seems everything thing you read tells you something differant. The beer on top of the yeast in the jar tasted good and nothing smelled weird so I used it.

I opened her up and see a big kraussen head in there, so I guess I'll leave it alone.