can you just pour the yeast cake into glass bottles and reuse?

i see a lot of threads about yeast washing and all that, but im kind of lazy...

is there any reason you just cant pour leftover yeast cakes into sanitized glass containers then leave in the back of the fridge untill next time you need that strain? no starters and save money?

I cant remember the specifics off the top of my head, but I know its not a good idea to store the whole cake, trub and all, for more than maybe a day or too. Check out this podcast about yeast repitching, they will explain it all and why washing it a good idea and to not store the cake long term.

The Brewing Network.com - :

For a quick lazy approach, do at least a single wash. 1 decent sized mason jar boiled with water, chilled down. Pour into fermenter onto yeast cake, swirl, wait 5 minutes or so, then pour off into the jar and leave most of that trub. You'll most likely get just enough yeast settled in that jar for one more batch of brew, and it won't be all nasty from hop trub and cold break, etc.
Quick easy techniques are great sometimes, but when dealing with yeast, the priority really needs to be with cleanliness and care. Yeast handling takes alot of my brewing time.

On the other hand sometimes I just like hydrating some nottingham and letting it do its ridiculously aggressive ferment how it wants.

good luck!

I repitched both young and old unwashed slurries and so far, so good. I do want to start collecting cleaner batches of yeast though. Budzu's description is a good idea.

I don't bother washing my yeast. I typically just swirl my trub in the fermenter and pour about about 20oz of it into a sanitized jar. I save it in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks,then I pour off the beer on top of it and pitch most the slurry into my new beer. Using this method, I typically get 4-5 batches per yeast purchase. It has worked great for me every time.

I don't wash my yeast aether. I just split the cake into 2 large jars and put them in the fridge. You want to reuse the yeast within 2-3 weeks and keep it sterile. I get about 3-4 generations of yeast this way, so far no problems.

Sometimes i just collect a quart or two of the slurry in a gallon zip lock freezer bag, putting the bag in a two quart pitcher and folding the top back over the rim makes for easy filling. I rinse the outside w/ starsan and just cut a corner off the bag when pitching. I believe they are sanitary out of the package so I don't bother star sanning them prior to use. I used to use jars, but cleaning and sanitizing can be a hassle compared to just grabbing a zip lock.

so in general you only want to wait save it for 2-3weeks max? what about 2-3 months?

bkov said:

so in general you only want to wait save it for 2-3weeks max? what about 2-3 months?

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I recently tried to use some ~8 month old washed yeast jars. One batch smelled bad, so I threw it away. Another batch smelled fine, but didn't ferment. So I had to run out to the store the next day to get a fresh pack.

So, you can try to push it to 2-3 months, and maybe it will work, maybe it won't. Just have a backup plan and you should be fine