Help me with first yeast/slurry harvest

[rtracer]

So I have about 6 gallons of a Pliney clone(1.070 OG) that is 15 days in primary. I have never transferred to a secondary, but this recipe "strongly recommends it" so I am going to go for it. I figure this would be a good time to save the trub slurry(have not dry hopped yet) and repitch a pint for my pale ale I plan on brewing Wed.

Below is a picture of said beer. There is quite a large layer of trub. I can clearly see the layer of clean white yeast in there.

Anyways, I plan to rack to secondary, add a couple pints of preboiled/cooled water to the trub, swirl and pour into 4 sanitized pint mason jars.

That's it right?

I assume a pint of the slurry will be good for about 6 gallons of my pale ale? My Pale Ale recipe usually comes in around 1.055.

 

[Yooper]

No need to add water, just rack the beer and then swirl around with the remaining beer and pour the yeast cake into sanitized jars. I love doing this- I save yeast all the time- but generally I don't save yeast from really high OG beers.

Here's a little "how to": https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=579350

 

[rtracer]

Good deal, thanks for the link. Any issue with my 1.070 OG I am harvesting from?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Any issue with my 1.070 OG I am harvesting from?

It is "best practice" to recycle yeast form lower gravity batches as the yeast will not be as stressed as it "might" be from a higher gravity batch. I think it is unlikely to be a problem, just not "best practice".

I would suggest collecting more than a pint of slurry, because the yeast will again settle in your collection jar and only half may be slurry, and half beer.

I collect slurry in quart jars to be sure I'll have plenty...

 

[Morrey]

I'll roughly figure, with the yeast cake you pictured, you'll collect close to three one quart mason jars of slurry. Once you get close to the bottom keeping your racking tip off the cake, leave half inch or so of beer. Swirl all of that into suspension and simply pour into sanitized jars with the lid on loosely in the fridge. Expect each jar to separate about 50/50 wort and yeast. Simply decant wort, warm to pitch temps and direct pitch if you choose. If you are concerned about your beer's high gravity (which isn't insanely high), you could use this cake to build a new starter for insurance, although I wouldn't personally be concerned to do this.

And yes, half of a one quart mason jar will give you a pint of yeast which is a gracious plenty for a 6G batch. Some may claim this is overpitching, but I have never had a problem with this method.

 

[rtracer]

Ok, done, I filled four pint size Mason jars. There was quite a bit left over I dumped.

So what you guys are saying is that I will want to pitch 1 full pint of slurry NOT including the liquid that will rise to the top. So if I end up with the mason jar half full of the sludge, I will want to pitch 2 of the pints to equal 1 full pints worth of the sludge?

Also, you guys are saying with this volume of a pitch, a starter is not necessary for my 1.055ish OG brew I have planned?

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

Ok, done, I filled four pint size Mason jars. There was quite a bit left over I dumped.

So what you guys are saying is that I will want to pitch 1 full pint of slurry NOT including the liquid that will rise to the top. So if I end up with the mason jar half full of the sludge, I will want to pitch 2 of the pints to equal 1 full pints worth of the sludge?

Also, you guys are saying with this volume of a pitch, a starter is not necessary for my 1.055ish OG brew I have planned?

Thanks!

There is a cool yeast pitching calculator that I use all the time for my saved slurries. Mrmalty.com has it under "yeast tools". The nice thing is you can get the amount of a thick slurry or thin slurry, so if you pitch the thick stuff in the bottom, you can get the amount needed.

I do that- I keep it in the fridge and then pour off most of the beer the day I'm brewing. I keep just enough liquid to pour the yeast after stirring/shaking it up.

I first estimate the amount of yeast using that slurry calculator, and often a pint jar is enough for 10 gallons of brew, so you may have too much in many cases in a pint jar. That's why I like the calculator- it estimates viability based on the time it was stored, and if you see a lot of stuff in there that isn't yeast, you can adjust the calculator accordingly.

If we tell you 1/2 pint is fine, we'd be just making a guess. It depends on the beer you're making (you should use more yeast for an OG of 1.080 than for an OG of 1.039, for example), the amount of beer you're making, how long the yeast has been stored, and if you're making a starter.

I don't make starters if the yeast is pretty fresh.

 

[rtracer]

Ok, I checked out malty. Came out to just 84 ML slurry. I even put the non yeast up to the highest setting at 25%.
84 ML is like only a fifth of a pint.

I suppose I will just pitch one of the pints and let er rip.

 

[wilserbrewer]

84 ml sounds low, I suggest double checkin.

Is there also a drop down for yeast slurry vs pure yeast?

 

[rtracer]

84 ml sounds low, I suggest double checkin.

Is there also a drop down for yeast slurry vs pure yeast?

Yeah I'm under the Repitching from Slurry tab.

I changed the slurry from thick to thin(1b per ML) the highest non yeast setting and it jumped to 256ML needed. That's a little over 1/2 pint

I had the slurry thickness on thick and that assumes 4B per ML.

 

[rtracer]

Well I brewed up my Pale Ale yesterday, hit my volumes and OG was exactly at 1.055 like anticipated. My 1 Pint slurry barely separated, like maybe an inch of liquid on top. Warmed to room temp, swirled all into solution and pitched. Woke up this morning to happy aggressive fermentation. Stoked to have saved $6.99 on yeast and the couple of bucks on the starter. I also finally bought a 50lb bag of grain and cut my cost considerably there. Here here for inexpensive beer!