Best practice when pitching harvested yeast

[squeekybobo]

I'm sorry if this has been covered umpteen times, but do people usually make a starter if they're pitching the yeast slurry they harvested from a previous fermenter? I'm talking about 3-4 weeks after its been harvested and sitting in the fridge... I've got a quart jar of irish ale wlp-004 filled in the fridge, and not planning on doing another stout for 3-4 weeks...

 

[nealperkins]

If your quart jar is truly filled, you need to know that most of that material is trub and not yeast. You need to separate it and the sticky available does a great job showing technique.

And, if it will be 8 weeks total time between batches you should make a starter just to verify viability and insure the yeast healthy.

 

[tagz]

IIRC the yeast book says make a starter if it is going to be more than two weeks between batches. That's just off the top of my head though.

 

[kh54s10]

Wash the yeast.

Here is a link to the stickie:https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

At 8 weeks total from harvest I would definitely make a starter.

Mrmalty.com and yeastcalc.com are sites with good information on making starters and have calculators for amounts.

 

[theDeutscher]

I'm surprised top cropping hasn't taken on as much popularity as washing yeast on this forum. All you need is a sanitized spoon, mason jar and water. Not to mention you're getting the most viable yeast possible.

I will say, though, that it is hard to find much information on the pitching rates of yeast that has been stored for a couple months. I'd probably just treat it like a low viability starter. Give it a small amount of low gravity wort like 1.020 and step it up from there. It'll be hard to tell exactly how many cells you have though.

 

[nealperkins]

Not so easy to top crop from a carboy or conical. But, if I was using a bucket, I'd be right there...

 

[theDeutscher]

Not so easy to top crop from a carboy or conical. But, if I was using a bucket, I'd be right there...

Ah, yes. Good point. Well, I'll be a good guy and trade you my buckets for any carboys or conicals you have.

 

[nickelmcgee]

Deutscher,

When do you typically harvest during primary?

 

[theDeutscher]

When do you typically harvest during primary?

McGee (using your formal format here),

It's like you went into the past and picked out my one issue with the process. You amaze me. Annnnnyways, I've done the top cropping in a couple series of beers. Both times I used Cal Ale, which is a great top cropping yeast... I guess I should say that a good top fermenting yeast helps. The first time, I brewed up a Pale Ale and opened up the fermenter the next day. The yeast was really fluffy. I didn't know any better so I just kept scooping until I had about a cup. When I pitched it into the next beer, it fermented out fine but I could not get the krausen down, even with shaking. So I racked it off and it turned out to be a great beer. I didn't crop again from that series because I was afraid something weird was going on with the yeast. I think if you do it too early you get all the non-flocculant yeast. The next time I did it I cropped about 3 days in when I saw the bubbling slowing down a little bit and the krausen was nice and thick... So I guess a long story short, maybe the best time is 2-3 days into primary???? Can anyone else chime in?

 

[tre9er]

I used to pitch from stored slurries all the time. Most of the time it was the whole cake, trub and all. Never had any issues. Now I try to make a starter if it's been a few weeks, but I don't get worked up over it. There are a LOT of cells in a whole cake, and I rarely split the cake up anymore.

Of course, as with everything, YMMV

 

[StMarcos]

I think if you top crop early you get the more flocculant yeast. Flocs stick to bubbles and rise to the top to form the foam.