I am about to bottle a cider I made and i noticed there is about 1/2 of old year at the bottom of the fermenter. I have a bunch of apple juice around that I might as well ferment as well. Would it be a disaster if I poured the new juice on top of the old yeast and restarted fermentation? Or do I need to clean/sanitize everything and repitch new or clean yeast?
Can you immediately reuse yeast?
- Thread starter theDregs
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You likely could pour new juice on the yeast cake, but you'd be better off collecting the yeast in a sanitized jar and cleaning the fermentor then reuse the yeast.
You can totally do it. But since this was a few days ago I hope you either did it or harvested the yeast. I did it for my RIS, made an ESB and bottled it while the stout was boiling. Pitched right on top and had activity pretty quick. I’d only do it once with the same yeast though, each time your upping the risk of contamination.
I'm confused. Is it year old yeast, or what are you trying to say?
Yes, you can certainly add juice onto the cake immediatly. If the yeast was only a few weeks old, I would advise removing at least half of the cake, maybe even more. With 'fresh' yeast you will have too much for an initial pitch.
If it is a year old, I would recommend making a starter as the majority of the yeast will be dead. yes, some will have survived, but not too many.
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