yeasty beasties

[TimmD]

So I brewed my first beer of the season last night after a 4 year hiatus. It's an IPA with a whole heap of hop pellets, 2.5 oz of amarillo and 4 oz of cascade to be exact. I'm expecting the trub to be a bit heavy. The OG was 1.072 and I used a Wyeast London Ale 1028 smack pak. It's in the basement bubbling away already.
I was wondering if it's worth it to save the yeast for my next brew, a dark porter that should have a similar OG, or should I just start with a new culture. I'm planning on brewing the same day or day after I rack to my secondary some time early next week.

 

[DeathBrewer]

sure...save the yeast. just rack it on to teh trub if you're lazy like me lately or wash it a few days before you brew

 

[Iordz]

just rack it on to teh trub if you're lazy like me

That's what I always do. Works great and saves money!:rockin:

 

[TimmD]

You guys mean just rack my next batch of wort right into my primary with the yeast cake and trub from my first batch right?

 

[mrkristofo]

You guys mean just rack my next batch of wort right into my primary with the yeast cake and trub from my first batch right?

After it's cooled, yes. Be prepared for immediate fermentation

 

[Yooper]

Yes, I do that often. But in this case, since you have a ton of hops pellets, you may want to wash the yeast. Do a quick search on the board here for "yeast washing". It's pretty easy and will get you plenty of clean yeast.

 

[Cheesefood]

If you're worried about your hops trub, then pitch on the cake left in your secondary.

 

[cubbies]

I would follow Yooper's advice. The thing is, even if you strained your wort before putting it in primary, there was still likely a good amount of hops that settled out into the trub. Since a porter shouldnt have all that much hop flavor or nose, it would not be good for the beer to sit on all that hop residue. If you wash the yeast, which is not a very complicated process, then you wont have to worry about that. Also, if you use the yeast cake from secondary, a) you will have to get the beer out of secondary quicker than you should, and b) you will be using the least floculant yeast. Washing the yeast is your best practice.

 

[TimmD]

so I racked to my secondary today. Tasted a tad bitter and green but the malt flavor came thru and I'm guessing that the bitterness/greenness will mellow in the secondary and in the bottle. The Gravity reading was 1.022. I'm hopeing it drops a few ticks before I bottle. There was a bit of trub in the tube possibly throwing off the reading.
There was about an inch and a half of slurry/trub. I took Yooper's advice and washed the yeast. I did 2 washes, 2 times and pitched one of them to a starter. The second one is sitting in the back of the fridge waiting for when I do my next higher gravity ale. The starter is on top the fridge cookin up and Im just waitin for it to rippen a bit before I start rolling on my Porter.

Thanks for the help. I'll keep you guys informed.