Mr. Malty Non-Yeast Percentage

[D-Hutt]

If I were to siphon a beer off a cake in a 6g carboy, break up the cake, and dump that thick slurry into a jar, does anyone know about how much non-yeast material would be in there? I didn't dry-hop, so it would only be the break material and yeast in there. I'm trying to figure out how much of that slurry I would need to pitch into the 1080 porter I'm brewing tomorrow. On Mr. Malty, should I just put the slider all the way to 25% and thick slurry and call it a day?

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

I usually go by color...
If its all creamy white then you have very little non-yeast percentage, If its on the brown off-white side then your more towards 25%
Without dry-hop i would guess around 10%.

 

[tre9er]

+1 on color. Usually the bottom-most layer is sort of "peppered" or grainy and darker. Sometimes there's even hop junk in there. Whatever is the creamy, mostly solid off-white layer, that's the percentage of yeast and the rest is the percentage of non-yeast. Basic grain bills with very little hops have yielded me 500ml of "pure" yeast at times.

 

[D-Hutt]

So I should drop that calc down to around 10-15% then as long as it's not a brownish color. And without diluting with any water, can I just shake the cake loose and dump it in a sanitized jar and measure out however many ml the calculator recommends? I'm guessing that I should keep the slider all the way to thick slurry in that case, yes?

 

[tre9er]

I use thick slurry if the yeast is compacted after refrigerating a cake and everything that's not the clearish liquid above is what I call "thick slurry". I use the non-yeast percentage on maximum if it came from a complex beer and/or with a lot of hops. I usually don't throw the whole cake in though. If I'm lazy, I swirl what's left in the fermenter, then try to pour off just the liquidy part and leave the chunks in the FV. The chunks are the trub, mostly, and very little yeast at all. If you harvest every single bit of what's in the bottom of the FV you're getting maybe closer to 50% non-yeast.

Whatever you figure your non-yeast to be, the ML recommended by MM is what you'd measure after decanting all clearish liquid off of the jar and then shaking up the rest.

 

[D-Hutt]

Ok, so rack the beer off the cake, swirl what's left in the carboy and pour off the liquid part, let that sit in a jar for a bit and then decant off the clearish liquid, shake what's left, and pitch the right ML amount of that stuff? Just want to make sure I'm following. If I had the stuff for a starter, or even to yeast wash, I'd do that. Poor planning on my part so I'm trying to still make this work.

 

[tre9er]

Ok, so rack the beer off the cake, swirl what's left in the carboy and pour off the liquid part, let that sit in a jar for a bit and then decant off the clearish liquid, shake what's left, and pitch the right ML amount of that stuff? Just want to make sure I'm following. If I had the stuff for a starter, or even to yeast wash, I'd do that. Poor planning on my part so I'm trying to still make this work.

Yes. I recommend refrigerating it for a few days to a week (usually I am not racking off yeast and brewing on the same day, so this works) to let things really settle out, that way you get a better idea of what you have harvested. The earlier you plan to use it, the more it's "thin slurry". You'll get a feel for how much it settles over time.

 

[D-Hutt]

Hmm...brewing tomorrow night. So not really a whole lot of time to let it sit. Maybe I'll drop the slider to thin in that case.

 

[tre9er]

Hmm...brewing tomorrow night. So not really a whole lot of time to let it sit. Maybe I'll drop the slider to thin in that case.

As long as there is clearish liquid on top, it's settled some. However mine usually start with just a thin layer of liquid, then each day or two the liquid becomes more and more until eventually it's mostly liquid...so if you don't have a lot of liquid on top, call it thin slurry.

 

[D-Hutt]

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for all the help.

 

[D-Hutt]

Harvested yeast.

 

[tre9er]

Harvested yeast.

How long has that been in the fridge? Very odd looking. Did you just harvest? Lots of pillowy foamy stuff there. Guessing you literally just harvested

 

[D-Hutt]

Yeah, that was like 5 min. after I harvest. The pillowy stuff is krausen, I think. There was still some krausen in the carboy - kolsch yeast. Posting another pic soon.

 

[D-Hutt]

 

[D-Hutt]

So, heading to the homebrew shop in a couple hours. Does the yeast in the pic look useable today, or should I just buy some smack packs?

 

[tre9er]

There was still krausen? So you harvested actively fermenting yeast?!? I hope you didn't bottle the other beer! That yeast is fresh, so its crazy good. Use MM calc and call it thin slurry, see how much you need. No starter required, just leave it out at room temp on brew day.

 

[tre9er]

Here's what most of my yeast looks like after settling for a few weeks+ (this is all of the runny part of a whole cake, in a quart jar)

 

[D-Hutt]

Racked the prior beer to secondary and going to cold crash it. This is a kolsch yeast, and I fermented the last beer around 60F.

So for my beer, should I try to drain off that liquid part in the middle and just shake up what's left and pitch the amount Mr. Malty says?

 

[tre9er]

Yeah, crash it as long as you can, up until three hours before pitching or so, then sit out at room temp. Try to get rid of everything but bottom-most layer in your picture. That's your yeast.

When are you brewing again?

 

[D-Hutt]

Brewing tonight.

 

[D-Hutt]

We'll see how this goes...

 

[tre9er]

I would say you have about 225ml of somewhere between thin and thick slurry, low non-yeast percentage. Try that in MM and I bet you're golden.

 

[D-Hutt]

Yep - looks like I might have even harvested a bit too much. It's coming in around 180mL. I'll leave a little bit behind and that should do it. Thanks for all the help.