Reusing yeast cake

[applescrap]

So I'm finally getting the idea that people rack one beer right onto another. Of course I'm willing to give it a try but I'm curious about a few things.

When I wash the trub out a lot of times it seems to smell. I usually just dump the wort in. Is it okay to stir that yuck up.

What about the gunk on the side also. A lot of times it ferments up and then drops leaving a bunch of junk on the side. Seems like that stuff would be a little off tasting, no?

Last, does something better come of this? If the only thing gained is saving the $5 on a pack of dry yeast, I don't mind paying the $5 if it's better.

But anyways thanks and my plan for reusing yeast is to make really big beers, convenience and a little savings.

 

[Jim311]

I don't even "wash" my yeast when I save it. I swirl the carboy around to get everything mixed up, and pour the slurry into a small mason jar, and put that jar in the fridge. I throw that into the next batch I brew after bringing it up to the same temperature of the wort. I even do it with really heavily hopped beers, which a lot of people say you shouldn't do, but I haven't noticed any off flavors. I've done this for 6-8 generations of yeast without any off flavors, but from time to time I'll pick up a fresh pack to make sure my yeast hasn't genetically mutated into some bizarro flavor altering strain. My fermentations totally rage by comparison to dry yeast. It can ferment out in as little as 2 or 3 days sometimes and be on gas not much longer after that. It's almost a necessity to me now to keep a few jars of slurry around, you can make beers so much faster since there is essentially no lag time for that yeast to go to work. It's probably not a professional way of doing it but it works for me and makes good beer I think.

 

[dstockwell]

I don't even "wash" my yeast when I save it. I swirl the carboy around to get everything mixed up, and pour the slurry into a small mason jar, and put that jar in the fridge.

Yep, same thing here..

 

[applescrap]

Thanks, good thoughts here. I think skimming the yeast seems like a good idea and washing out the rest of the gunk.

 

[TheMadKing]

I just racked my altbier directly onto the yeast cake in the same fermenter.. Didn't swirl or anything.. It took off quickly, and I'll report back on the finished product

 

[55x11]

So I'm finally getting the idea that people rack one beer right onto another. Of course I'm willing to give it a try but I'm curious about a few things.

When I wash the trub out a lot of times it seems to smell. I usually just dump the wort in. Is it okay to stir that yuck up.

What about the gunk on the side also. A lot of times it ferments up and then drops leaving a bunch of junk on the side. Seems like that stuff would be a little off tasting, no?

Last, does something better come of this? If the only thing gained is saving the $5 on a pack of dry yeast, I don't mind paying the $5 if it's better.

But anyways thanks and my plan for reusing yeast is to make really big beers, convenience and a little savings.

Technically, you save more than $5 if you also do a starter for the yeast pack.

There are some downsides to repitching on yeast cake though. For example, you are repitching on a slurry that is a mixture of spent hops, dead yeast, some maybe not-so-healthy yeast, and then a huge mass of yeast that is difficult to evaluate properly. So you may be over- or under-pitching (less likely) and not even know it.

But it's easy and it works for a lot of people. I save some slurry in my yeast bank, but I usually use those in emergencies, or step it up/refresh it with a starter.

 

[applescrap]

I just racked my altbier directly onto the yeast cake in the same fermenter.. Didn't swirl or anything.. It took off quickly, and I'll report back on the finished product

I seem to have about 3/4 gallon of trub anymore. I brew in the bag and just dump the kettle into the fermenter, do think going this route would still apply? Thanks

 

[TheMadKing]

I seem to have about 3/4 gallon of trub anymore. I brew in the bag and just dump the kettle into the fermenter, do think going this route would still apply? Thanks

I do the same thing, except I whirlpool and don't dump quite everything, but there was plenty of hop residue in there from the pilsner. How much it will affect the finished product remains to be seen.

 

[ericbw]

Technically, you save more than $5 if you also do a starter for the yeast pack.



There are some downsides to repitching on yeast cake though. For example, you are repitching on a slurry that is a mixture of spent hops, dead yeast, some maybe not-so-healthy yeast, and then a huge mass of yeast that is difficult to evaluate properly. So you may be over- or under-pitching (less likely) and not even know it.



But it's easy and it works for a lot of people. I save some slurry in my yeast bank, but I usually use those in emergencies, or step it up/refresh it with a starter.

But you have a yeast bank of washed yeast?

 

[beergolf]

I used to do that but now I do it slightly different.

I make a big starter of a yeast that I want. Before I pitch I just pour some of the starter into a mason jar to save. Then that can be used at a later date to make a fresh starter for future batches. It is a lot cleaner that way.

 

[JimEb]

I do this all the time. Saves money on yeast and saves me a carboy washing.

I plan my brews and brew schedule around this. Always pitching darker, more complex brews over lighter ones since flavors of the first batch with transfer over to the second batch. As soon as I empty a carboy, I transfer fresh wort back into it.

A local brewery has a long time running experiment doing this they call "eternal flame". They take some wort out of their regular batches and put it on the same yeast cake they've been using for years. The beer is a barely drinkable dark sludge now. I usually only reuse the yeast cake once.