yeast harvest

[Lepetitnormand]

hello,

On my first beer brew, I harvested the yeast and had a lot of fun doing it (and reusing it).

I am actually finishing the fermentation of a blonde ale that would be clarified using gelatin, the yeast cake will then be used to ferment cider.

Would the process be the same after the cider has fermented or should I just forget about it ?

thanks for any help or pointers you can give.

cheers

 

[JimRausch]

hmm. I've reused yeast from a beer to a cider, but not yet from a cider to a beer. I don't see why it wouldn't work well. Although, cider has fewer yeast nutrients than wort, so might the yeast be stressed? Don't know. Hope someone else chimes in.

 

[Calder]

Don't bother messing with the yeast from the cider.

Pitching on a whole cake will work, but not recommended. You only need about a third of the cake, and that will put you close to proper pitching rates.

Get some mason jars, and split the cake between 3 of them. Store in fridge, and you then have yeast for 3 beers. Use within a few weeks, or make a starter.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Do the same thing. Label the jar with details like you used it in beer then cider, date harvested, gravities, maybe alcohol content of the cider, sanatized water vs cider in the jar and anything else you can think of. I can't see any reason not to see what happens. I'm curious to know how a yeast handles being stored in 11% alcohol for a month or two then pitched into a starter or 5 gallon batch. Some strains say they're alcohol tolerant to 11% so what better time to find out?