Reusing yeast - no action - thoughts?

[ArizonaGoalie]

I brewed a Belgian Quad and saved the yeast through proper washing a week ago.

Tonight I'm brewing a bourbon Dubbel and want to reuse this yeast.

Potential problem: normally when I reuse yeast, once it gets to room temperature, it gets some activity, a few swimmers popping to the top.

This Belgian style yeast - NOTHING. It's room temperature. Perfectly still. Is this normal for this type of strain?

It's too late for me to do a starter to test it. Do I just pitch and check for activity over the next 72 hours and if none, get new yeast?

Your feedback is very appreciated, as my mash is mashing as we speak, so I'm a couple hours away from pitching.

 

[palmtrees]

I'd think it's pretty unlikely that your yeast is bad, if it successfully fermented your last batch and was just harvested a week ago. But you never know.

How much yeast do you have? Enough to split it? You could pitch most of it into your wort tonight and then put the rest into a starter. The starter should tell you if the yeast is viable before the beer will, since the yeast will have an easier time getting rolling in a starter environment. If the yeast is viable, then you could either pitch the starter into your wort to give it a boost or save that starter for your next belgian. No harm done. If the starter doesn't take off, then you know you have a problem and can go get some more yeast and pitch it, all without having to worry about taking gravity samples of your main batch.

 

[madscientist451]

I agree w/palmtrees, except that I would chuck 3/4 of your saved yeast in the new beer and use 1/4 along with about a quart of wort for a test starter to see what happens.

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

Thanks guys. Good suggestions.

 

[BrewZer]

I just did the same thing with a batch of Wyeast 2112. First brew, built a 750ml starter and pitched into a 1.070 APA; got kreusen and airlock bubbles in about 6 hours.

Second brew, pitched about 500 ml of cake/trub, and the beasties took a good 24 hours to even poke their foamy heads above the surface, but then proceeded to drop the specific gravity from 1.057 to 1.015 in under a week.

Now, I did violate the "lighter to heavier" rule, so maybe it was disappointed in me and decided to take a break to show me who's boss. Point taken. But it eventually got to work and left a tasty marzen-like ale in its wake.

So my new mantra for repitching:

Repitching rule #1: RDWHAHB
Repitching rule #2: See rule #1.
And if in doubt, RDWHAHB.

 

[josephort]

I repitch yeast pretty frequently, I always get good results, and I don't think I usually see activity in the jar as it warms. So this wouldn't worry me at all.

That said, I typically repitch from low-to-medium gravity beers into bigger beers. Once a yeast has been used to ferment a big beer (>~1.090), I thank it for its service and pour it down the drain. My understanding is that high gravity fermentation is stressful to yeast, and I've certainly had big beers that take a really long time to bottle condition, presumably for that reason. So I would be a little hesitant to pitch off of a quad, personally. However, if this is something you've done before and believe should work, I wouldn't let the lack of visible activity deter you.