I have a batch nearly ready to rack off. Can I start a new batch by mixing the juice etc. right onto the trub and just stir things up? How many times can I do this before I end up with too much dead yeast in the fermenter?
Reusing the trub.
- Thread starter Bender
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
How spent is the yeast? Did you make a high SG cider then ferment to completion. If so, the yeast may be too pooped to pop! If it's dry yeast and cost about a buck or so, why bother?
SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
I'm pitching a wheat beer right on top on my Wyeast 3068 cake as soon as I rack my hard cider out of the carboy in 6 weeks. I didn't add any additional sugars to my cider though, so at 6% ABV I think a lot of the yeast will be healthy enough to have another crack at 'er.
giligson
Well-Known Member
go for it.
OP
OP
It's Wyeast 3068 and getting more is a real pain. One of these days I want to start doing yeast washing, but for the moment it's something I don't have time to do.
What I have is a batch of Better Than Apfelwein. I tapped the first batch over the weekend and it's pretty sweet, I have to cut it with regular apfelwein to make it drinkable.
The yeast is still still active. I was thinking of racking the nearly completed BTAW into a secondary and tossing 5 gallons of plain apple juice over the trub, letting it ferment and mixing the two batches to bring the FG down to something more tolerable.
peas_and_corn
Member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2008
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 0
I do it all the time. Sometimes I take some of the trub out, since there is a LOT of yeast cells in there, and has in the past caused explosive fermentations
OP
OP
That's part what I was wondering. I know from the last batch there was a good 1/2" of sediment in there. I'll give this a try over the weekend. Thanks for the info.
SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
I hear ya! The yeast cost me half as much as the AJ for the batch I'm on now. With Montrachet, S-04, ect it's not worth spending the time to wash the yeast but I'm paying about $10.20 CDN for a Wyeast Activator pack. I make $10.25/hr at my crappy p/t student job so it's worth at least and hour of my time
llazy_llama
Well-Known Member
Last Sunday I racked a robust porter straight onto the yeast cake from an identical brew. It's bubbling away happily as we speak. Pitch away, I say!
OP
OP
On Sunday I racked off the mostly fermented cider. I dumped another 5 gal of apple juice onto the trub. It had one hell of a krausen. I'm using a 6 gal bucket and on Monday when I got home the airlock had overflowed with crud. Fortunately I had a clean airlock and vodka handy. It's now happily bubbling away. This is going to be a real time and money saver.
