Question about yeast reuse

[stansoid]

Hello everyone,

I have a low gravity beer (centennial blonde) that I made using Vermont ale yeast. It is coming up on the two week mark in terms of time in the primary fermenter. I could likely keg it today and have a pretty good product.

I plan to reuse the yeast in a high gravity imperial IPA, but I will not be able to put that into my temp controlled fermentation chamber until at least Dec 16th - Dec 20th because I have a cider going in tomorrow (the fresh juice is nearly expired so I have to get the cider rolling).

My question is this - am I better to keg up the centennial blonde, wash the yeast and put it in the fridge for a week or two until I am ready to do the imperial IPA OR should I leave the centennial blonde on the yeast until a couple days before I am ready to do the imperial IPA (the 14th to the 16th ish of Dec)

My instinct is to leave the beer on the yeast for another week or two to help the quality of the centennial blonde's final product, but will that effect its viability in my next beer?

 

[SeeMont]

I would let the blond sit in primary longer, I shouldn't hurt it at all. I usually primary for three weeks or more. As for storage, I have kept yeast in the fridge for over a month and it worked fine. Good Luck

 

[mblanks2]

Leave the blonde in primary until just before you're ready to brew the imperial.

 

[arnobg]

i've been using the 3 week primary my last few batches and it has improved clarity at the least. With a 2-3 day cold crash at 32-33F they have been coming out fantastic. No little particles of yeast floating around anymore as opposed to my 2 week primaries. I do bottle condition though.

 

[flars]

Don't rinse/wash the yeast. Just pour the slurry remaining in the fermentor into a sanitized quart jar. Stickie in Yeast and Fermentation called "Simple Yeast Storage Procedure". Works very well and results in more harvested yeast.

Your yeast harvested this way will have a layer of beer over the top to protect it as it would be in the fermentor.

I would keep the beer in the fermentor longer for clearing and have fewer initial cloudy pours from the keg.

 

[stansoid]

Thanks for replies and pointing me.to that stickie. I am glad to read I was over complicating it.