Help with reusing yeast

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Franzi

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I brewed a Koelsch which has been in primary for 3 weeks and over the weekend transferred it to secondary. I then poured the cooled wort that I just brewed on the remaining yeast on the bottom of the primary bucket. However, there was a LITTLE bit of liquid from the previous batch still in the primary, which I naturally didn't want to get in the secondary. I then stirred it all up like crazy to get the yeast going again.

My concern/question is: Is it bad that there was a little fermented beer left in the primary when I dumped the new wort in? Would introducing oxygen to that little bit of fermented beer in there cause the entire 5.5 gallons of new brew to get infected or go bad?

I haven't peeked inside yet, but from what I can see, the fermentation lock is bubbling like crazy.

As always, thanks in advance! :mug:

Mod Edit: This is about general techniques rather than extract brewing: It's been moved to the relevant forum.
 
Sounds fine to me. I don't even stir, I just rack the new cooled wort right on top. It will work fine. That tiny amount of beer won't matter- and it wouldn't have had time to oxidize anyway.
 
What beer did you make after the Kolsch? When pitching directly on a yeast cake, always pitch a darker beer than the one previously on it.

You'll be ok.
 
A small amount of beer from the previous batch is not enough to impact your new batch at all.

I don't agree with the theory that the next beer you pitch has to be darker in color. I brewed 3 batches of hefe from April-May and I kept reusing the cake for all 3 batches. None of them were darker and they all turned out just fine.

I think it's more important that the beer you just racked off wasn't high in gravity (over 1.055 or so) or high in IBU (50+), both of which stress the yeast and have the potential of impacting the flavor of the next batch.

I believe that it's even more important that you use a proper amount of yeast. Using an entire cake may be a bit much, although I have done this in the past as well. You can go here and calculate how much of the slurry (cake) you want to actually use for the next brew.
 
The color concern is you probably wouldn't want to make a pilsner after a stout...not that they use the same yeast, we're just talking colors here...as an example...

If you are making the same brew then there's no concern at all. ;)
 
ohiobrewtus said:
I don't agree with the theory that the next beer you pitch has to be darker in color.
Click to expand...

Surely you would see some color change if you were to ferment a blonde ale on a stout yeast cake.

ohiobrewtus said:
I brewed 3 batches of hefe from April-May and I kept reusing the cake for all 3 batches. None of them were darker and they all turned out just fine.
Click to expand...

Did the hefe's range in different colors. Say, by more than a 10 SRM units?

EDIT: Homebrewer 99 beat me to it!
 
Again, thank you for the quick responses.

The second beer I'm making is pretty much an experimental beer which will be the product of leftover supplies. I don't typically carry a big inventory and figured all I needed to make one more batch was yeast.

Atypical of a Koelsch, I used 4.5lbs of amber dme, 1 lb of extra light dme, 1lb of german dark crystal, 0.5 oz cascade at 60, 0.5 oz cascade at 20, and 1 oz of columbus at 2 min...all currently fermenting at ~68 degrees.

So color isn't of concern, IBUs are in check, and it's not too big a beer.

What style, if any, would this be classified as? Can't wait to see how it turns out!
 
Mutilated1 said:
Leftover Supplies = Frankenbeer
Click to expand...

FYI The BJCP category for Frankenbeer is 23 (and a letter for whatever it is close to)..."Specialty Beer" but I like Frankenbeer better though.

3d-frankenstein-marche.gif
 
Revvy said:
I'm having "vouja-de-o"...didn't Brewtus and I have this discussion last week???
Click to expand...

Yes we did. :D

I think I may just make a brown ale with Notty, then pitch a Blonde on top of it just to debunk the whole color thing once and for all. :D A couple ounces of leftover brown ale in 5.5 gallons of something like a Blonde ale is barely going to change the SRM or the flavor profile of the beer.

If you put 4 oz. of <your liquor of choice> in 5.5 gallons of water it will change the color a bit, depending on how dark the liquor is, but it's not much (and what little it does change would be even less in a beer considering that water is clear and something like a blonde ale is going to be around 4 srm). Mix it up and pour yourself a 16 oz. glass of the water and you probably won't be able to taste the liquor.

But I digress...for the simplicity's sake it probably would be easiest to plan your repitches in ascending SRM value, provided that other criteria are met as well.
 
Franzi said:
Atypical of a Koelsch, I used 4.5lbs of amber dme, 1 lb of extra light dme, 1lb of german dark crystal, 0.5 oz cascade at 60, 0.5 oz cascade at 20, and 1 oz of columbus at 2 min...all currently fermenting at ~68 degrees . . . What style, if any, would this be classified as?
Click to expand...
Just curious, what yeast did you start with?
 
ohiobrewtus said:
I think I may just make a brown ale with Notty, then pitch a Blonde on top of it just to debunk the whole color thing once and for all. :D A couple ounces of leftover brown ale in 5.5 gallons of something like a Blonde ale is barely going to change the SRM or the flavor profile of the beer.
Click to expand...

Go for it!! I'm all for debunking brewing myths...:D
 
Definately go for it Ohio. I think that instead of debunking it all together you will just find at what threshold does the previous brew's trub begin to affect the color of the 2nd beer. Well, thats assuming that you do a couple experiments with different beers.

Maybe its time to start a "Yeast cake vs. Beer Color" thread
 

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