Pitching a beer instead of liquid yeast

[Elijah Hutchinson]

So I came home from college for the summer and wanted to brew a 1 gallon smash with my leftover ingredients. But I was too lazy to drive 45 min to the brew shop for ale yeast. So I poured out half a home brew and pitched the sediment into the gallon of wort. Two days later it's fermenting happily. Does anyone think this was a terrible idea or has anyone done this in a pinch when new yeast was unavailable?

 

[ancientmariner52]

Sounds pretty clever to me. If the beer turns out well, you done good.

 

[danielthemaniel]

Never thought of trying that! I'm guessing it will end up under attenuated but if it tastes good, that's all that matters. You might be a genius.

 

[AkTom]

The only terrible thing is I won’t be able to try one.
Cheers

 

[PeteSeattle]

I bet you it will be fine.

With what little beer that’s left over in my secondary carboy I’ll collect that in a flask. Next brew day I’ll let it get to room temperature and pitch that. No starter and it takes off in about 12 hours. I’ve been doing this for my last 6 batches with the same yeast. Every time I’m amazed the beer turns out.

Happy brewing. Cheers.

 

[corax]

Will it work? Yes.

Will it produce drinkable beer? Probably. Homebrewing is an incredibly forgiving process that we all worry about way too much.

Is it best routine practice? No. You grossly underpitched, as evidenced by your 2 day lag time.

 

[PeteSeattle]

No. You grossly underpitched, as evidenced by your 2 day lag time.

Denny Conn always admits he’s a lazy brewer but then rephrases with “pragmatic.” And harvesting yeast is very pragmatic.

Your initial thought (OP) is in the right direction but perhaps take it the next step with a starter.

Since it seems to be underpitched this time and want to try it again next brew day perhaps do it with 3 sanitary bottle dregs into a starter. Still curious to see how this batch turns out.