anything to do with the bottom of the Fermenting bucket?

[Gueron]

One of my "mentors" had said something about saving the residue at the bottom of the bucket.

I just finished one batch and poured the majority of the leftover dredge at the bottom of the bucket into a relatively airtight container.

Should I do anything with this or was my friend playing a joke on me, or did I misunderstand something? I can't ask him, he has just moved and I don't currently have contact information for him.

- G -

 

[MyNameIsPaul]

Shoulda left it in there and poured on some new, fresh wort. Usually, your brews will start SUPER fast with all that yeast. It's called a yeast cake. Check out the threads about it. Pretty cool.

 

[slarkin712]

What you have is trub, hop material, and yeast. You can reuse the yeast in another batch. I would suggest rinsing the yeast to remove the hop material and trub. Check out one of threads on this site about rinsing/washing yeast. Here's one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

One of my "mentors" had said something about saving the residue at the bottom of the bucket.

I just finished one batch and poured the majority of the leftover dredge at the bottom of the bucket into a relatively airtight container.

Should I do anything with this or was my friend playing a joke on me, or did I misunderstand something? I can't ask him, he has just moved and I don't currently have contact information for him.

- G -

I would read the links provided BUT if the airtight container you poured it into was not sanitized, I would just toss it out and try again next time. I use washed yeast 90% of the time and so far have had great success with it.

 

[Gueron]

It was sanitized with heat, in a dishwasher, but I didn't use bleach or chemical sanitizer on it. So toss it, and next time be more careful??

It's only my fourth complete batch, so I haven't done a lot.

- G -

 

[cheezydemon3]

Oh hell, this thread is about to lift off.

 

[rodwha]

I'm just getting into this washing of the yeast, but I'd say that the dry cycle of the dishwasher isn't going to cut it.
I wouldn't risk my next batch on a possibility. Better safe than sorry.

 

[onipar]

I've done both of the suggestions (washing the yeast and using another time after making a starter, pouring new wort on top of the yeast cake), and both work great.

One thing they usually say if you're going to pour a beer on top of the yeast cake is that it should be the same type of beer, or generally something stronger in flavor than what you just brewed. For instance, you probably wouldn't want to pour a wheat beer wort on top of an imperial IPA yeast cake, because those flavors will carry over.

There's a lot to it that frankly I forget, because I haven't done this in a while. The links posted are a good starting point.

 

[rico567]

Reusing the yeast is a good idea, but if the trub is removed, it needs to be under sanitary procedures. When I decided to to this, I followed the directions in the yeast washing thread (link in second post in this thread) and had great success.

 

[grndslm]

Since we aren't making the same recipe over and over again, and we're actually trying to distinguish the taste of one hop from the next... we are now rinsing our yeast.

It has also been mentioned that there will be 2x or 3x as much yeast in that yeast cake than you need, so you are essentially overpitching any time you pitch onto a yeast cake.

Best to remove all trace of the last ingredients *and* pitch the right amount.

 

[onipar]

Since we aren't making the same recipe over and over again, and we're actually trying to distinguish the taste of one hop from the next... we are now rinsing our yeast.

It has also been mentioned that there will be 2x or 3x as much yeast in that yeast cake than you need, so you are essentially overpitching any time you pitch onto a yeast cake.

Best to remove all trace of the last ingredients *and* pitch the right amount.

After you wash your yeast, do you make starters before pitching?

 

[grndslm]

We have not needed to yet.

We got the yeast from a local brewery. Washed it and used one of the jars the next day. Used another one of those jars after another week.

We washed the yeast in the primary from our first batch, so we could use that.... but I think we'll try tossing the 15-day old jar of washed yeast, just to see if it works or not. If it DOESN'T, then we can still wash the yeast we washed last week, and we know 7-days will work just fine.

I would absolutely not go past 15-days without making a starter, but we are going to do 15 days just because there's really no harm.

I have also seen it recommended to toss the older yeast into the last minute of the boil, because the dead yeast makes great yeast nutrient. With yeast washing, we can afford to turn old yeast into yeast nutrient... further lessening the need for a starter.

 

[barneygumble]

Since all serious answers seem to be given already, I might add that the cake could be poured into a 6 oz glass and chugged down. It tastes pretty nasty, but the next day you will feel like a new person! This is best done in lieu of a colonoscopy.