When planning to brew an Irish Red Ale a few weeks ago I decided to use White Labs WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast to ferment it, that is until I found out my LHBS had none in stock. After investing so much time in formulating this recipe I already had my heart set on pitching nothing else, I wanted everything to be perfect for my very first attempt at this beer style. So I postponed my plans to brew that weekend and decided to just wait for a fresh batch of WLP-004 to be delivered, in stock and ready for me to use. Of course that never happened, either I brewed that weekend as originally planned, or I had to wait three more weeks before having time available for another brewday. Ultimately my brewday was saved by a few packets of Safale S-04 Dry Ale yeast that I bought on brewday morning, along with some hops and freshly crushed grain. Nearly a month later this Irish Red Ale fermented with S-04 both tastes and looks remarkably good and if the WLP-004 could have improved this beer any I'm not exactly sure how it would.
After transferring the finished beer to a keg and bottling bucket a nice thick layer of S-04 yeast was left behind covering the entire bottom of the fermentor. Using a one gallon pickle jar, an inexpensive plastic turkey baster, some sanitized water, a long handled spoon and a bunch of previously used yeast vials I was able to put an entire year's worth of S-04 yeast in my refrigerator. If you've never taken the time to reuse the yeast left over from a previous batch of beer and you've decided to give it a try, using S-04 makes it really easy to get started. Since S-04 is a high flocculent yeast it will settle out of your beer really quickly, once it's done churning wort sugars into alcohol and Co2. The S-04 settles out quickly to form a thick compact layer of yeast cells, on the bottom of the fermentor, with minimal amounts of trub or other impurities. Those very properties make S-04 yeast a perfect candidate for collection, long term storage without the risk of contamination and guaranteed results when pitched into future batches of beer.
While packaging the current batch of beer fill a wide mouth one gallon jar with filtered water and boil it for 10-15 minutes to sanitize it, then cool it down to match the temperature of the beer being packaged. Sanitize the gallon jar, turkey baster, long handled spoon and yeast vials in a solution of StarSan while waiting for the water to cool. After transferring the beer from the fermentor just leave a little bit of beer behind to keep the yeast cake covered, then put the lid back on the fermentor until you're ready to wash the yeast. Kept at or around 65-70F and covered with beer the yeast can stay in the fermentor without worry for several hours while waiting for the packaging to be finished.
The idea is to gently pour the sanitized water into the fermentor and then use the long handled spoon to stir the yeast up into suspension, eliminating as many yeast clumps as possible. This stirring never takes me more than a couple of minutes before I open the spigot and transfer the yeast slurry into the sanitized jar, where it'll stay for a few days in the refrigerator. Once the jar has been filled nearly to the top spray some StarSan on two pieces of plastic wrap and the top of the jar. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the mouth of the jar held in place with a small elastic band and then do the same with the second piece of wrap. After two days in the refrigerator the yeast will drop to the bottom of the jar in a very tight compact layer that can then easily be sucked up in the turkey baster then squirted into the waiting yeast vials for storage.
After only a few days in the refrigerator the yeast inside the vials will further compact separating the cells from the sanitized water. The water floats above the yeast that's at the bottom of the vial and the vials of yeast will look just like the vials you buy at your LHBS. Using this method of yeast washing and storage I was able to refill 16 vials with the S-04 yeast left over from a single five gallon batch of beer, proving once again just how economical and easy it can be to grow your own.
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]
After transferring the finished beer to a keg and bottling bucket a nice thick layer of S-04 yeast was left behind covering the entire bottom of the fermentor. Using a one gallon pickle jar, an inexpensive plastic turkey baster, some sanitized water, a long handled spoon and a bunch of previously used yeast vials I was able to put an entire year's worth of S-04 yeast in my refrigerator. If you've never taken the time to reuse the yeast left over from a previous batch of beer and you've decided to give it a try, using S-04 makes it really easy to get started. Since S-04 is a high flocculent yeast it will settle out of your beer really quickly, once it's done churning wort sugars into alcohol and Co2. The S-04 settles out quickly to form a thick compact layer of yeast cells, on the bottom of the fermentor, with minimal amounts of trub or other impurities. Those very properties make S-04 yeast a perfect candidate for collection, long term storage without the risk of contamination and guaranteed results when pitched into future batches of beer.
While packaging the current batch of beer fill a wide mouth one gallon jar with filtered water and boil it for 10-15 minutes to sanitize it, then cool it down to match the temperature of the beer being packaged. Sanitize the gallon jar, turkey baster, long handled spoon and yeast vials in a solution of StarSan while waiting for the water to cool. After transferring the beer from the fermentor just leave a little bit of beer behind to keep the yeast cake covered, then put the lid back on the fermentor until you're ready to wash the yeast. Kept at or around 65-70F and covered with beer the yeast can stay in the fermentor without worry for several hours while waiting for the packaging to be finished.
The idea is to gently pour the sanitized water into the fermentor and then use the long handled spoon to stir the yeast up into suspension, eliminating as many yeast clumps as possible. This stirring never takes me more than a couple of minutes before I open the spigot and transfer the yeast slurry into the sanitized jar, where it'll stay for a few days in the refrigerator. Once the jar has been filled nearly to the top spray some StarSan on two pieces of plastic wrap and the top of the jar. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the mouth of the jar held in place with a small elastic band and then do the same with the second piece of wrap. After two days in the refrigerator the yeast will drop to the bottom of the jar in a very tight compact layer that can then easily be sucked up in the turkey baster then squirted into the waiting yeast vials for storage.
After only a few days in the refrigerator the yeast inside the vials will further compact separating the cells from the sanitized water. The water floats above the yeast that's at the bottom of the vial and the vials of yeast will look just like the vials you buy at your LHBS. Using this method of yeast washing and storage I was able to refill 16 vials with the S-04 yeast left over from a single five gallon batch of beer, proving once again just how economical and easy it can be to grow your own.
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]