Scared to use washed yeast for first time

[BetterSense]

I followed the procedure in the photo tutorial on washing yeast and now I have several baby-food jars in the fridge with 1x used Nottingham. I'm worried to use this stuff on a batch of beer, tough, because it's an awful lot of work and time if there is some problem. Maybe I should make a small 3 gallon extract batch, or something to boost my confidence.

Part of the anxiety is that I've never made a yeast starter before. I always used dry yeast. How many days ahead of time do I need to make the yeast starter? What's the most amount of time that I can go between making the yeast starter and pitching?

 

[wittmania]

I have had the greatest success pitching a starter between 12 and 18 hours after making it. It does depend on the strain, but beyond that it seems the yeast starts to slow down again. Personally, it seems like pitching very active yeast works best.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Make the starter the night before your brew day.

 

[seabass07]

^^This. Make a starter 24 hours in advance and taste and smell the starter wort if you are that concerned. I've had 100% success rate so far with my washed yeast.

 

[stevedasleeve]

Why bother? Get another packet of Nottingham. When I found Nottingham at $1.75 per I decided it was idiotic to harvest and all the irritation that goes along with it. I say buy another packet or go with liquid yeast and learn you starter mechanics (which is far from difficult.) IMHO and YMMV.

 

[Hatchbrew]

I haven't had a problem reusing yeast. I was nervous the first time I pitched as well. I agree to do a starter if you're worried. Reharvesting yeast saves a lot of money.

 

[petrostar]

100% success here too on past ten batches. Love having a yeast bank.

 

[statseeker]

I need to shrink my yeast bank a bit or start freezing samples. I cant use them fast enough.

 

[tchuklobrau]

I was afraid to use my washed yeast the 1st time as well. I followed this video https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-make-yeast-starter-video-177635/ for making my starter. smelled and tasted the starter as was already suggested. tasted fine so i pitched had visible signs of fermentation 1.5 hours later. If your washing technique was sound then fear not.

 

[Tubba]

I like to pour a bit of malt extract (liquid is the most practical) into the starter, to see that the yeast "wakes up". It usually resuspends itself after a few swirls.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Why bother? Get another packet of Nottingham. When I found Nottingham at $1.75 per I decided it was idiotic to harvest and all the irritation that goes along with it. I say buy another packet or go with liquid yeast and learn you starter mechanics (which is far from difficult.) IMHO and YMMV.

Where did you find Nottingham @ $1.75? The price has nearly doubled in the last few months since they introduced the new packaging.

 

[samc]

I can't find it for $1.75 , so I had to settle for $1.50

http://brewbrothers.biz/brewcart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_4_7&products_id=177

Seriously I wouldn't spend the money on DME and effort of washing for a dry yeast.

 

[smalliewader]

I just started washing yeast, I started with a cheap dry yeast myself..as practice before I wash the expensive liquid strains I have going.

I made my starter 2 days before pitching and have gotten a very slow start so far. Tonight is 48 hours, I have krausen, but no airlock activity at all, which is odd for the Danstar Munich, it tends to produce a lot of co2. I made another starter last night to pitch more tonight just in case. I'm wondering if i didn't wash enough yeast in each jar now.

I did 2 cups of water to 1/2 cup light DME boiled for 10 minutes for the starter. Got very quick activity in the starters, just very slow start in the actual beer.