Hoped To Pitch On Yeast Cake. Didn't Work Out.

[Asator]

Hello,

I typically use Wyeast 1056 or WLP001 for the majority of my beers, which are pale/amber/brown/India Pale ales. I've been trying to expand into Belgian beers, and I recently brewed a Tripel which I'm happy with at bottling.

The problem: This yeast (Wyeast 1388, Belgian Strong Ale) just finished its first fermentation, and I was planning on brewing a Dubbel this evening and pouring on the yeast cake from my Tripel. I wasn't able to brew the Dubbel, but still wanted to save the yeast after bottling my Tripel. I poured the thick slurry into a 1-gallon glass jug, and it has a ridiculous amount of solid matter in the bottom.

What do I do with the jug? I hope to brew in the next few days, but now I have a stupid amount of yeast in a jug. Maybe pitch half of it into the new brew? Pitch all of it? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hbhudy]

Hello,

I typically use Wyeast 1056 or WLP001 for the majority of my beers, which are pale/amber/brown/India Pale ales. I've been trying to expand into Belgian beers, and I recently brewed a Tripel which I'm happy with at bottling.

The problem: This yeast (Wyeast 1388, Belgian Strong Ale) just finished its first fermentation, and I was planning on brewing a Dubbel this evening and pouring on the yeast cake from my Tripel. I wasn't able to brew the Dubbel, but still wanted to save the yeast after bottling my Tripel. I poured the thick slurry into a 1-gallon glass jug, and it has a ridiculous amount of solid matter in the bottom.

What do I do with the jug? I hope to brew in the next few days, but now I have a stupid amount of yeast in a jug. Maybe pitch half of it into the new brew? Pitch all of it? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Check for the yeast washing thread.. I typically just used some boiled water to mix with the yeast cake and pour that into a few quart jars that I then grow starters from.

 

[sborz22]

There are estimates on this forum for unwashed yeast counts. I stopped washing my yeast (which is what you did) and I assume 2 billion cells per mL if they are newly harvested. Use Mr Malty or other calculators but in the end it is a very inexact science at the homebrew level.

 

[RM-MN]

Hello,

I typically use Wyeast 1056 or WLP001 for the majority of my beers, which are pale/amber/brown/India Pale ales. I've been trying to expand into Belgian beers, and I recently brewed a Tripel which I'm happy with at bottling.

The problem: This yeast (Wyeast 1388, Belgian Strong Ale) just finished its first fermentation, and I was planning on brewing a Dubbel this evening and pouring on the yeast cake from my Tripel. I wasn't able to brew the Dubbel, but still wanted to save the yeast after bottling my Tripel. I poured the thick slurry into a 1-gallon glass jug, and it has a ridiculous amount of solid matter in the bottom.

What do I do with the jug? I hope to brew in the next few days, but now I have a stupid amount of yeast in a jug. Maybe pitch half of it into the new brew? Pitch all of it? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

The first thing you do with the jug is to put a cap on it, loosely as there will be excess CO2 that needs to escape. Then you refrigerate it to keep it.

Next is to divide it into 4 smaller containers because typically a yeast cake will contain 4 times the recommended amount of yeast for a proper pitch. These can be stored in the refrigerator for months although in time the viable yeast cell count will go down and you will need to make a starter.

The solid material in the bottom is pretty inert so you have a choice, wash the yeast to get rid of most of it or just pitch the whole mess (divided as mentioned). Either way works.

 

[seatazzz]

+1 to what RM-MN said. You can use the straight slurry with no problems. On brewing day, take it out of the fridge a few hours before pitching to let it warm up (loosen the lid to let it off-gas while warming up, otherwise you might have yeast slurry on your ceiling when you open it!). I set aside some boiled wort for a vitality starter to add to the slurry as well, and I've had great results with it. I typically get 3-4 small mason jars of slurry from a batch, and just one of those has plenty of cells to ferment another one. You'll find conflicting opinions on how many batches you can do this with, but 5 seems to be the magic number.