How Much To Keep?

[BrewZer]

Looking for some collective wisdom, please. It's my first time to dredge the cake for a second batch... the flask (2 liters) is cold in the garage (ambient temp ~40 degrees) and has striated...

I'll be pitching a 5.5 gal 1.054-ish wort tomorrow afternoon.

So how much of this should I expect to keep and how much should I pour off?

 

[McKnuckle]

It depends how long this has been sitting, but it looks like the good, suspended yeast is in the lighter, opaque brown section in the (roughly) middle. Hurry though, and pour it off into a fresh jar or two, so it can settle. If you wait too long, it will settle on top of the trub, making it impossible to separate. Not that you strictly have to separate it, of course.

 

[BrewZer]

About four hours. I was thinking to decant the old beer on top, and just pitch about half the lighter layer (gently poured off after the beer). But would that be too much for a 5.5 gallon batch?

 

[BrewZer]

Just a follow-up: I poured off about a liter of beer, swirled the remainder, and used about half... so I figure I got 500 ml of mixed yeast and beer/trub from the other batch.

I'll update with activity if it takes off.

 

[rburrelli]

Just a follow-up: I poured off about a liter of beer, swirled the remainder, and used about half... so I figure I got 500 ml of mixed yeast and beer/trub from the other batch.

I'll update with activity if it takes off.

Definitely an over pitch. But that will not be an issue (usually). You should get a good fermentation in a short period of time.

 

[BrewZer]

I wish I had. Apparently, the 2112 was tired, or stressed, or maybe partied out, 'cause they slept all night and didn't get cranking until mid-morning today. Still well within 24 hours, but not nearly as quickly as I had expected. The first pitch out of the bag started foaming about 5 hours after I pitched it from the starter.

I thought I had aerated the make-up water enough, sloshed in the pitch to distribute evenly, even had the pitch and the wort within 3 degrees of each other. But, sometimes I guess the yeast has a mind of its own. Of note, this wort is about 13 points lighter than the first batch, so maybe they're disappointed in the lower sugar content. Sorry guys; my bad.

But now it looks like a hot fudge sundae: nice, creamy kreusen with a light brown topping, just what I'd expect from 2112, and the airlock's bubbling about once a second, so it's going into high kreusen overnight tonight.

This was my first re-pitch; it's great to save the money and all, but it wasn't worth the stress for me.