Hiesting yeast - How long?

[SoCal-Doug]

Enjoyed a couple bottles of Saison while the schmutz at the bottom of the bottles went into a flask. What's everyone's opinion on how long I should wait for obvious activity before I declare it a failed attempt. Googling it, the results appear to have about an 80% success rate over the years of articles and postings.

I'm using 300ml of 1.020 DME wort, boiled for 15 minutes, generic balanced water profile, with about a half normal dose of yeast nutrient (a fraction of a gram) at about 75F ambient, on a stir plate. Used about the last 1/2" of each of two bottles (there was definitely plenty of schmutz available). Sterility was in OCD mode. It's happily stirring with no indication of any sort of good or bad life yet. If it wakes up, i'll separate it and roll a 500ml cycle.

 

[owmatooth]

i'd throw in another half of yeast nutrient and a give it a few days. how long has it been so far? 1.020 isn't a lot of food for a yeast party, throw some more food in the mix.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

i'd throw in another half of yeast nutrient and a give it a few days. how long has it been so far? 1.020 isn't a lot of food for a yeast party, throw some more food in the mix.

It's been about two and a half days. Yesterday it appeared that the bubbler did have pressure behind it. Today it looked more like a slight vacuum behind it. This could simply be the temperature changes inside the house.

I did the first cycle light at 1.020 based on some reading where people said to go easy on the weakened idle dregs. Going another cycle at maybe 1.040 with another dose of nutrient would not be a problem. Or [ouch, twist my arm] go get another few bottles and try again

 

[ericbw]

With the first few steps from bottle harvested yeast, you might not see anything happen. Especially at a low gravity.

So you have about a cup and a half in the flask? But about 2 oz of it is actually beer from the bottle?

I would make another batch of wort at 1.020 or 1.030 and add it to the flask. Spin that for a day, then let it settle. See if you have more yeast than when you started. I think the presence of yeast is a better indicator than seeing foam or bubbles - in the early stages.

 

[ericbw]

I had something interesting that's semi-related. I was making a starter from saved slurry (1L of 1.030 wort plus 90 ml of pretty dirty slurry). It fermented out in 36 hours, so I let it settle for a hour, then poured off the top (about 600 ml) and then added more 1.030 wort to the flask.

The part I poured off is settling out into clean yeast, but the flask on the stir plate shows no signs of anything after 24 hours. I'll have to see if something happened to kill all the yeast in the flask (like was the wort too hot when I added it).

 

[SoCal-Doug]

With the first few steps from bottle harvested yeast, you might not see anything happen. Especially at a low gravity.

So you have about a cup and a half in the flask? But about 2 oz of it is actually beer from the bottle?

I would make another batch of wort at 1.020 or 1.030 and add it to the flask. Spin that for a day, then let it settle. See if you have more yeast than when you started. I think the presence of yeast is a better indicator than seeing foam or bubbles - in the early stages.

Great thoughts. Thanks!

I did another 400ml of 1.040 with nutrient late last night and added it. Nothing this afternoon but i'll wait it out.

Realizing I had nothing to enjoy during the NFL opener tonight, I grabbed a couple more large bottles of Saison Dupont at BevMo today. Just breaks my heart to have to drink a couple more good beers

I'll seal up the dregs in case the first attempt was a fail.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I have found best success with bottle dregs using 100ml of 1.010 starter for the first cycle...

Cheers!

 

[SoCal-Doug]

I have read similar. And the other half say go for the gusto. Maybe on the next attempt i'll go 1.030 and split the differing opinions

 

[SoCal-Doug]

We have bubbleage! It's alive Second attempt with dregs from two bottles. 400ml at 1.035 on the stir plate. Silent until late into day two, then came to life. After a few days and it goes idle, i'll crash it, settle it, re-wort it, and let it make more yeast babies.

 

[ericbw]

I had something interesting that's semi-related. I was making a starter from saved slurry (1L of 1.030 wort plus 90 ml of pretty dirty slurry). It fermented out in 36 hours, so I let it settle for a hour, then poured off the top (about 600 ml) and then added more 1.030 wort to the flask.

The part I poured off is settling out into clean yeast, but the flask on the stir plate shows no signs of anything after 24 hours. I'll have to see if something happened to kill all the yeast in the flask (like was the wort too hot when I added it).

I figured out what happened here. After 48 hours with no apparent activity, I let it settle in the flask. It started clearing, and it smelled and tasted fermented. So apparently it fermented pretty fast overnight and by the time I looked again, it was done. It just never made much foam, etc. (I thought it never started.)

I decanted the top again, then added more 1.030 wort to some of the dregs, and it took off within a couple of hours, and it fermented very vigorously, with a huge cap of foam.

Not trying to jack your thread, but just sharing that sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on inside the yeast starter.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

No problem at all. I found the same thing. The small quantity in the flask really doesn't take that long to ferment out and you kinda need to watch it often.