New beer on old yeast

[chriscraig]

Hi all,

I just bought my first smack pack of Wyeast 1056 at my LBHS the other day. I'm going to use it in one of those kits with a 23L bag of pre-hopped wort.

I have 2 questions.

1. Do I need to make a starter, or can I just follow the directions on the back of the package of Wyeast?

2. This stuff was $10, and I don't want to spend the money on it each time I make beer. If I brew the beer, and rack it off into a secondary, can I just start another batch of the same beer right on top of the trub?

Any tips here would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Dogphish]

1. what is the OG of your first batch?

2. i have read that if you want to reuse your yeast, then you should only reuse it once or twice, it is better to reuse yeast with lower gravity beers, each time you reuse the yeast the batch should be equal or higher gravity and equal or darker color than the previous batch. i have also heard that using the whole cake is overpitching. you should harvest a cup of the light colored yeast in the middle layer of the cake, and repitch that.

 

[Dogphish]

and you should taste a sample of the batch before you reuse the yeast. if there is any signs of contamination, like a funky smell, you should not reuse.

 

[Calder]

I just bought my first smack pack of Wyeast 1056 at my LBHS the other day. I'm going to use it in one of those kits with a 23L bag of pre-hopped wort.

I have 2 questions.

1. Do I need to make a starter, or can I just follow the directions on the back of the package of Wyeast?

A starter is preferred. If anything happened to the yeast, high temps, frozen, old, etc the yeast may not all be viable. A starter will multiply the yeast count and verify it's viability. A lot of people have had success just pitching the packs.

If you don't have anything to make a starter with, you could use some of the pre-hopped wort (a pint) and add the yeast to it in a sanitized quart container (cover with sanitized foil), aerate that and let it ferment for a day or two, when it is going (kraeusen on the surface) pitch all of it into the main wort. Don't worry if you miss 'high' kraeusen, that's just when the yeast are at their most active.

2. This stuff was $10, and I don't want to spend the money on it each time I make beer. If I brew the beer, and rack it off into a secondary, can I just start another batch of the same beer right on top of the trub?

Only pitch part of the cake. You can save it in mason jars, and keep it in the fridge for up to a month (can go longer, but viability goes down), and just pitch a pint into your next beer.

I expect at least 6 batches of beer from a pack. I buy it for $5.99. I figure a dollar a batch is not bad. I once got 15 batches out of a pack (that was 1056).