Uses for lees?

What can I do with the lees after primary?

My wife says keep it. There has to be a use for it.

Eric

Taste it. Then decide if it's something you can stomach eating.

Put your next experimental batch on it

I haven't tried it, but a book I read said its good for marinades, stocks and soups.

Boil it down to a thick paste. That's what vegemite is pretty much. Of course that stuff is terrible and if I wasn't going to ferment something else, into the mulch pile it goes.

My wife used lees from a batch of 4766 and made some killer sourdough bread.

It took a while to rise, but it worked.

I should have taken a picture of it but we ate it already.

Eric

I haven't made it yet but search Skeeter Pee. People rave about it on Wine Making Talk. It's a lemonade wine.

I boil it down with garlic and tamari and use it as salad dressing. Works well with some yeasts/ciders, not with others. If it's absolutely impossible to stomach going in, it's not going to evolve into something nice with that method.

I also suspect it would make a good component in foliar fertilizer....

I use mine for bottle carbing experiments.

It's great for the compost heap.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

It's great for the compost heap.
Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

I have heard that it also works well in septic systems. I have thought about using it for outhouse maintenance at my hunt club, but haven't bothered to try it to date.

Sorry to go there...
wilser

gratus fermentatio said:

It's great for the compost heap.
Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

Yes.....the wife is throwing what we don't keep into the compost bin.

wilserbrewer said:

I have heard that it also works well in septic systems. I have thought about using it for outhouse maintenance at my hunt club, but haven't bothered to try it to date.

Sorry to go there...
wilser

Click to expand...

I've heard that too, not sure if it's because the yeast is able to start a colony in the septic tank, or if it just provides some good nutrition for the bacteria feeding on it; either way, it can't hurt.
Regards, GF.

I water my plants with it.

Lees and Trub from cider are great to cook with since they don't have any hops to make them bitter ( most beer folks throw out the trub due to the hops )

In essence, you can make ANY 'sourdough' recipe using lees + flour, it's a NON-sour version of a sourdough starter.

I make 'no-knead' bread about every 3 days using cider lees as my leavening agent. Its crazy simple

save your lees in a large mason jar as you would to wash yeast, It will hold without going bad for a few weeks in the fridge if sealed.

I make a poolish ( wet bread starter ) by taking 1 cup of flour and adding it to a mason jar with 1 cup of watery lees. Let this sit out for a few hours and it will triple in size in the jar. You just woke up the yeast with the flour!

This is my 100% hydrated starter.

Then I follow any of the 1000's of recipes out there for 'no-knead' bread started with a poolish, pictured below is my favorite, craisin-walnut, with some spent grain from my brewing added for crunch.

Google 'NO-KNEAD' bread and you will find everything you need to make this with your lees

Great info about using in compost
I was wondering about that. I have two batches just out of primary. I'll try it. Thx

Has anyone tried to start another batch of cider with it? Thoughts on that?? In Theory, you could get a few Batches out of one packet of yeast.. right??

macaler said:

Has anyone tried to start another batch of cider with it? Thoughts on that?? In Theory, you could get a few Batches out of one packet of yeast.. right??

Click to expand...

Yes, If the yeast is in good health and not contaminated, you could "in theory" brew many, many batches from one packet of yeast. In practice, many do just that.

wilserbrewer said:

Yes, If the yeast is in good health and not contaminated, you could "in theory" brew many, many batches from one packet of yeast. In practice, many do just that.

Click to expand...

True. But the issue with cider may be that alcohol is poisonous to yeast. So, in a higher alcohol cider, the odds of having healthy yeast in the lees are not great odds.

Yooper said:

True. But the issue with cider may be that alcohol is poisonous to yeast. So, in a higher alcohol cider, the odds of having healthy yeast in the lees are not great odds.

Click to expand...

How would you know if your yeast is healthy??

realize this might be old but..... just racked the 2015 Barberra and thought about this. What we do is take the lees and rack left overs for marinade/soup/chili stock. Really anything you would marinade otherwise. The lees produce a creamy texture after boiling or basting. For marinades it's GREAT on tofu. Soak some tofu in the lees, cook and serve and NO ONE will guess what the hell it is. It's also great to pour over the grill when the fire flares up.

liquiditynerd said:

realize this might be old but..... just racked the 2015 Barberra and thought about this. What we do is take the lees and rack left overs for marinade/soup/chili stock. Really anything you would marinade otherwise. The lees produce a creamy texture after boiling or basting. For marinades it's GREAT on tofu. Soak some tofu in the lees, cook and serve and NO ONE will guess what the hell it is. It's also great to pour over the grill when the fire flares up.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a great idea. Hooray for one less bit of waste!