Simple Yeast Storage Procedure

[stever1000]

How do you top crop?

Ditto!

 

[rhys333]

A few of the German and English strains are "true top-croppers", producing massive amounts of thick yeast during the active phase. Two I like to use are WY3068 and WY1469. You just skim the yeast off the top and into jars, then top with a little sterized water and store as you do with the simple storage procedure described in this thread. Its essentially pure yeast, and from my experience just about the most viable yeast you'll ever get. You want to do two things to make sure you select the right yeast cells: 1) do a 'dirt skim' 24 hours into fermentation (removes hops and crud), then do a second skim 24 hours later. This is the yeast you harvest. By doing this you're getting rid of the early flocculating cells and selecting the ones you want, thereby preserving strain characteristics. You do need to use a pail intead of carboy for easy access. Its a fun thing to try and can give you some supercharged yeast. The simple storage technique works just as well though, and is, well, a little bit simpler.

 

[churst]

Subscribed [emoji16][emoji482]

 

[stever1000]

In my case the fermentation is going wild and I am getting a lot of debris, foam, etc in the blow off tube and in the water at the other end of the blow off tube. I'm assuming I am losing a lot of this supercharged yeast...
How would this effect my new, fresh yeast slurry at the end of fermentation?
Thanks!

 

[tgmartin000]

What is the harm in overpitching yeast?

For most ales, it's pretty tough to overpitch, from what I understand. However, where you're making a beer with lots of yeast character - belgians, hefe's, etc., overpitching will suppress the ester production, leaving you with a beer that is too "clean".

 

[christyle]

For most ales, it's pretty tough to overpitch, from what I understand. However, where you're making a beer with lots of yeast character - belgians, hefe's, etc., overpitching will suppress the ester production, leaving you with a beer that is too "clean".

So from everything i've seen, the benefits far outweigh worrying about overpitching, unless doing a yeast-forward beer really...

 

[stever1000]

I'm worried now that I overpitched my old slurry which will effect my hefeweizens taste. Although the 3056 is supposed to have mild yeast flavours so I guess its not the end of the world...

 

[Yambor44]

Pretty much every time I pitch a slurry or even washed yeast from US-05 I end up with a Hefe aroma and flavor. This time was no exception.

Here's the thread about my SNAFU.

What are your thoughts on this? I want to pitch the rest of my slurry jars.

 

[rhys333]

Pretty much every time I pitch a slurry or even washed yeast from US-05 I end up with a Hefe aroma and flavor. This time was no exception.

Here's the thread about my SNAFU.

What are your thoughts on this? I want to pitch the rest of my slurry jars.

That shouldn't happen with US05. Stupid question: you didn't get your slurry mixed up with hefe yeast did you? Contamination could be another factor if you're certain it is (or was) US05.

 

[Yambor44]

No. Straight US-05. I've never used Hefe yeast. It has happened many times which is why I stopped using slurry. Thought maybe it was something else but....here we are again.

 

[rhys333]

No. Straight US-05. I've never used Hefe yeast. It has happened many times which is why I stopped using slurry. Thought maybe it was something else but....here we are again.

All I can think of is an infection. Wild yeasts can be very estery. Have you tried purging... getting rid of slurry, replacing lines, sterilizing equipment?

 

[Yambor44]

All I can think of is an infection. Wild yeasts can be very estery. Have you tried purging... getting rid of slurry, replacing lines, sterilizing equipment?

I'm not above thinking I could have an infection. However, I never get that flavor/aroma when using US-05 straight from the packet or any other liquid yeast with a starter or without (smack pack).

It was in the back of my mind when I did it this time but I was hopefully optimistic it was something else in the past. Given this is about the 6th-7th time I've reused yeast and it's happened every time I can't figure it out.

I appreciate the input. I just can't see an infection cropping up only when I re-use yeast. I'm baffled.

 

[tgmartin000]

I'm worried now that I overpitched my old slurry which will effect my hefeweizens taste. Although the 3056 is supposed to have mild yeast flavours so I guess its not the end of the world...

Rdwhahb. Pitch rate is another knob we get to tweak. Another party of the fun!

 

[brewkinger]

I'm not above thinking I could have an infection. However, I never get that flavor/aroma when using US-05 straight from the packet or any other liquid yeast with a starter or without (smack pack).

I appreciate the input. I just can't see an infection cropping up only when I re-use yeast. I'm baffled.

Unless I am grossly missing what you are saying, here is my thought.

An infection WOULD BE the cause of the problems if you have a tainted slurry.
If you are using straight 05 from the packet, there would not be an infection.

 

[tgmartin000]

So, I had a 2 month old yeast cake that was sitting at room temp under 5 gallons of beer. I harvested the slurry, which was about 350 mL, and pitched about 250 of it into 6 gallons of a 1.055 beer. It was fermenting within 12 hours! I think I overpitched slightly, which is kind of a bummer with a belgian style, but oh well. Just thought I'd add the data point.

 

[christyle]

What temp are you fermenting at?

 

[tgmartin000]

Assuming you're asking me, I pitched at about 68 and let it free rise to 77.

 

[ejf063]

Subscribed

 

[skitter]

Just pitched my first stored sample of S-04. I hope it works. I found out after the fact the cider it came from may have been in the 12% range...

 

[pshankstar]

So I followed the Simple Yeast Storage procedure but have some questions, since this is my first time trying to save yeast. Mainly, do you think everything looks ok? I assume so, but we know what assume really means...

Please note I use the FastFerment Conical Fermenter. I took the contents from the first collection ball and dumped as much as I could into a quart size jar (there was more than 1 quart full that had to be dumped). Unfortunately I did not have more jars, but I do now.

With that being said, does it look like yeast (with some trub) in the last picture? I'm sure I am going to have to "wash" it and use a small portion of it when I do my next brew, does that sound correct? If so, what is the amount you want to use for a 5 gallon extract batch (+/-)? I'm not sure why "Washing Yeast" seems intimidating to me, but it does... If anyone has any suggestions or tips on how to "wash yeast" or how to use the yeast in my next batch, please share.

PS - I'm in the process of building a stir plate for starters moving forward!

Thanks in advance for the feedback!


Initial picture taken on 11/12/15 at 11:20pm. Contents dumped into jar from collection ball.


Picture taken on 11/13/15 at 12:05am.


Picture taken on 11/13/15 at 12:35am.


Picture taken on 11/13/15 at 7:16am.


Picture taken on 11/15/15 at 12:40pm.

 

[christyle]

The whole point of this thread is to say you don't need to wash it. You can, but it seems unnecessary really. Lots of people use calculators and stuff, I just dump about 250-350ml of slurry (whatever I get in my small mason jars) into my batches, sometimes with a starter, sometimes without. Never really had problems except for a slow starting batch from a 5mo old sample without a starter.

 

[skitter]

I had a cider that did really well off stored yeast. Same with the cream ale that just finished. No washing, just yeast scooped from the bottom of my Mr Beer LBK. Keep in mind I filter my wort going through to the keg

 

[Yesfan]

T.....Never really had problems except for a slow starting batch from a 5mo old sample without a starter.

Assuming the amount pitched was also at around the 350ml mark, what was the gravity of the batch? I had a similar experience with an IPA, and after about of day or two of nothing, I pitched the remainder of the slurry. Took off like a rocket.

 

[christyle]

It was probably around 1.05-1.06...i've used other batches of that age yeast with no issue, I think it was too close to the back of my fridge, where it freezes things, and killed off more yeast than normal.

 

[pshankstar]

The whole point of this thread is to say you don't need to wash it. You can, but it seems unnecessary really. Lots of people use calculators and stuff, I just dump about 250-350ml of slurry (whatever I get in my small mason jars) into my batches, sometimes with a starter, sometimes without. Never really had problems except for a slow starting batch from a 5mo old sample without a starter.

Thanks, that's what I wasn't sure about. Washing it later instead of right away. But in this case you don't wash it at all. So you can re-use it with some of the trub and what not. That saves time and effort for sure!! So do the pictures look good or did I seem to get more trub than yeast?

 

[Yesfan]

........So do the pictures look good or did I seem to get more trub than yeast?

Pictures look great to me. It will all settle out when you cold crash. Just make sure that you have the lids on snug, after you verify no more off-gassing will occur.

 

[Artifishal]

The whole point of this thread is to say you don't need to wash it. You can, but it seems unnecessary really. Lots of people use calculators and stuff, I just dump about 250-350ml of slurry (whatever I get in my small mason jars) into my batches, sometimes with a starter, sometimes without. Never really had problems except for a slow starting batch from a 5mo old sample without a starter.

This is exactly what I do too. I try to pull it out of the fridge the night before to let it slowly rise to room temp, but even when I forget to do that it ends up just fine.

 

[pshankstar]

Pictures look great to me. It will all settle out when you cold crash. Just make sure that you have the lids on snug, after you verify no more off-gassing will occur.

Thanks and thank you to the others helped too!

 

[TriggerHappy]

x

 

[pshankstar]

This is exactly what I do too. I try to pull it out of the fridge the night before to let it slowly rise to room temp, but even when I forget to do that it ends up just fine.

This may seem silly but I need to ask. Since I have a full quart jar filled with yeast, slurry, trub, etc... Do I scoop out how much I need and just let that sit out over night before I make the starter? Using a clean and sanitized spoon (soaked in San Star) and just let that sit out over night before I create the starter? I would also place this in another cleaned and sanitized jar. I would assume this would be the preferred method instead of bringing the whole jar out and letting it all warm up to room temperature. Thanks in advance!