an experiment in decanting off saved yeast

[Soulshine2]

Those of you who save a slurry - Have you ever done this?
Just about a half hour ago as I was finishing up bottling my Kolsch I had a thought .

I had a little spiess leftover from it and rather than trash it or save what little I had ,I looked into my previously saved yeast batches in their jars all nestled in the bottom of the fridge and looking like 1/2 the jar was the fully fermented and clear beer sitting atop their much settled yeast cake.

So, I had a Grolsch bottle sitting handy and decided to decant off the beer from the 2 Oktoberfest yeast jars and prime it with what I had leftover in Kolsch spiess. Since both beers were fermented with K-97 it shouldnt hurt.

Worst case scenario I lose a single 16 oz bottle of beer I wouldnt have had anyway...

we'll see what happens in about 10 days .

 

[eric19312]

I've never done that but am guessing that decanted beer is pretty oxidized.

 

[Soulshine2]

I've never done that but am guessing that decanted beer is pretty oxidized.

Why would it be. Its been in the full jar with the lid on and cold.

 

[eric19312]

Why would it be. Its been in the full jar with the lid on and cold.

I'm imagining your yeast harvesting is like mine. But perhaps you somehow collect the yeast in a closed system?

I dump my yeast into a sanitized open jar. Jar is not purged before adding the yeast and the yeast/beer slurry is pretty cold so it will take on O2 from air. Then I cap the jar with a mason jar lid barely finger tight to make sure if any gas builds up it will release. Store these jars in a fridge. Im pretty sure the mason jar lid is enough to keep out bugs but doubt it will protect from at least some additional oxygen exposure. Now maybe if your yeast samples are very fresh and you get them going with priming sugar or spiess right away the oxidation will be minimal and the new yeast activity will clean up the introduced oxygen.

 

[elfred]

Definitely do it. Don't throw away beer. Even if for starters or the liquid in inverting sugar.