Confusion about re-pitching lager yeast

[masaba]

I recently brewed a Munich Helles using WLP 830 German Lager yeast. The beer fermented beautifully, and I decided, hey, now I should brew a bigger lager with the slurry. The Helles I brewed had an SG of 1.052, and I plan to brew another lager with an SG of 1.072.

I racked the Helles to secondary two days ago. I then poured about 2 quarts of boiled and cooled water onto the yeast cake, swirled, and then poured the mixture of yeast, water, and the little remaining beer into 3 different quart sized mason jars (see the attached picture).

I now have the three jars sitting in my fridge, and am wondering how to proceed. First, I cannot see any stratification layers in the settled material in the yeast jars. It all just looks like one tan layer. At this point I am wondering if I should:

1) Just decant the liquid and pour the solid slurry material into my new beer
2) Make a 2L starter. I would do this by making the starter wort, shaking the mason jars, letting them settle for 15 minutes, and then pour in only the stuff still in suspension from the jars. This would hopefully separate out some trub and freshen up the yeast for a new bear.
3) On the day of brewing, shake the mason jars, let them settle for 15 minutes or so, and then pour in only the stuff still in suspension into my new wort. This would separate out some trub, but might result in too small of a pitch if I don't pour in enough.

Option 1 ignores the fact that there are probably trub and dead yeast cells in my slurry, while 2 and 3 try to get rid of some of the trub.

I know that I am probably over-thinking this and that any option will work fine. But I am looking for a little re-assurance here. Thanks for any advice.

 

[naturebrew]

I have pitched my lager yeast cake on 3 later batches, all were fermenting within hours at 52f and smelled great, haven't had a chance to taste them yet as they are still conditioning other than a sample when I kegged them which was great. I basically just poured the yeast into sanitary jars and filled to the top. One thing to be careful of, when you take the jars out of the fridge, loosen the lids as they will build pressure, ask me how I know this. I don't think you need to worry about a small amount of trub affecting your beer, as long as they are healthy cells for the most part, just pitch it and stand back for active fermentation. So option 1 would be the way I would go, you definitely do not need a starter.

 

[giraffe]

Option 1 is fine if they havent been sitting out of the beer too long, just use a yeast calculator a fudge factor for the non yeast material (like mrmalty does.) If the jars are over three weeks old, id make a starter.

 

[masaba]

Thanks for the advice! The yeast has only been in the fridge for a few days. I harvested on Tuesday and am brewing on Sunday. I gotta' keep the pipeline going here.

 

[naturebrew]

Hehe yeah I hear you, all I am brewing ATM is lagers as it is cold here up north and I don't want to heat the basement. Making some nice lagers and IPLs, basically changing out ale yeast for lager yeast and fermenting at lager temps. With yeast that young, it will take off almost immediately, you have way more than you need to get it going, post your results on how things go.

 

[JimRausch]

Thanks for the advice! The yeast has only been in the fridge for a few days. I harvested on Tuesday and am brewing on Sunday. I gotta' keep the pipeline going here.

I do exactly what you are proposing. Decant the fluid, then swirl and pitch the remaining slurry. For a 1.070ish lager, I would pitch all 3 qts.

 

[masaba]

I ended up pitching two of the jars. Most calculators said I needed only 1.5 to 2 cups of slurry. Anyway, I pitched cold at 50 degrees and had signs of airlock activity after 5 or 6 hours. Thanks for the advice.