Reusing yeast

[felix1987]

Hey everyone I'm putting on my second batch of yeast this morning and like a total noob I forgot to buy some champagne yeast there's no home brew shops open where I am today that sell it but my local supermarket sells beer yeast could I just use that or could I siphon some of the sediment or liquid out of a batch of cider that I have going at the moment also I was going to make some yeast nutrient is it just raisins and water simmering over about half an hour or do I have to add something else thanks in advance

 

[fatbloke]

Hey everyone I'm putting on my second batch of yeast this morning and like a total noob I forgot to buy some champagne yeast there's no home brew shops open where I am today that sell it but my local supermarket sells beer yeast could I just use that or could I siphon some of the sediment or liquid out of a batch of cider that I have going at the moment also I was going to make some yeast nutrient is it just raisins and water simmering over about half an hour or do I have to add something else thanks in advance

Personally, I wouldn't (well, don't, actually) use champagne yeast in meads. It blows too much of the aromatics and more subtle flavourings straight out the airlock.

The beer yeast depends on which type, what it's tolerance might be etc. I wouldn't re-use other yeast as it's likely to have been stressed from other ferments and could give "off" flavours/tastes.

Raisins and water, boiled, isn't really a nutrient source is it. You could chuck in some bread yeast into the raisins and water boil. That would help a lot.

Actually it depends on the brew you're aiming at making above, you could just use bread yeast in that. Follow the guidance for daily aeration etc and that should work........

 

[biochemedic]

What's the OG, what kind of "beer yeast" are you referring to? ...kind of hard to recommend a yeast when we don't know the strain or what it will be dealing with.

Overall, fatbloke is correct...generally probably best not to reuse yeast from mead, but depending on your cider it may be fine. Mead, in general, tends to be a fairly high ABV, but ciders can vary. Yeast really should not be reused from anything much higher than 7% ABV.

I also agree that adding some killed bread yeast is a good addition to your nutrient soup...