Collecting, rinsing and reusing yeast

I’m attempting to reuse some US-05. Once I collect the slurry from the fermenter and rinse and harvest the yeast; should I make a starter or just repitch? Also, can I store the slurry in the fridge and rinse later?

You can store the slurry in the fridge and never rinse.

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Many believe you lose some of the best yeast by rinsing. I don’t rinse my yeast, just harvest and refreigerate. Depending on age of the slurry when I’m ready to reuse, I may pitch slurry or make a starter. I use the brewersfriend.com yeast calculator to help me decide.

I bag all hops, boil and dry hop and my slurry is pretty clean.

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I bag my hops too, never tried dry hopping though. Slurry’s not stratifying anyway. Will pitch it all. Thx guys!!

me still not sure about colecting my yeast seems like a lot of work washing yeast did read an watch some videos about reusing yeast not real into the idea yet . but one question once i collect and harvest the yeast do i need to brew next time the same type of beer regarding flav

Its actually quite simple. Just pour your leftover yeast in a clean mason jar mark it and stick it in the fridge. Use it whenever and for whatever you want. Washing it is s waste of time and good yeast. Do you really think they wsdh their yeast in a brewery ?

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This is the amount of yeast harvested using the rinsing method. The pint jar is roughly marked in milliliters. WY 1056.

This is the amount of yeast harvested by just pouring into a quart jar. This picture was taken right after the pour.

Same jar after about one week in the refrigerator.

There was still yeast left in the fermentor, but this was enough to have on had since the same amount could be harvested from the next use of a small part of this yeast.

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will try this on the next batch thanks for the info.indeed was watching youtube on washing and collecting yeast i was like pffff way to much work .i dont mind to spent lots of time on the beer project it is real fun but did think this is to much work

will try this on the next batch this looks way easy than what i have seen thanks

So quick question for the beer gurus here… Have been reading about the yeast harvesting really want to give it a try… So if I’m not washing, do I just pour EVERYTHING from the fermenter??? Or… What?

Yes, either scoop it with a sanitized cup, or pour it. No need to overthink it.

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me did try it yesterday first time colecting the yeast from the death ringer ale see if this works got four mason jars now in the fridge

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Oh it works. It’s the best way to always have fresh yeast plus no shipping , no starter and no $. A no brainer.

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Sounds like a winner!! Just wish I had thought of it the other day when I racked my KOLSH to secondary. But have a Kama Citra in primary now will definitely start saving it!!

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ok, so i like the idea of reusing yeast. i use US-05 pretty much, now if i pour into a sanitized mason jar how do i know if this is enough or not enough yeast for my 10 gal batches. Also how long can u keep in fridge, and how many reuses can you use it for thanks

I have had yeast in the fridge, under a blanket of beer for 6 months! I also do mine a bit different, but you should wake up dormant yeast with a starter a few days ahead, and then you can build it up to a larger amount. I haven’t gone past 4th generation but I’ll bet there are a few folks here that have… see, I don’t usually use the same yeast for all styles so I switch it up OR didn’t care for a particular yeast. Sneezles61

You can use this calculator to help estimate how many yeast cells you have per milliliter using the slider under the “repitching from slurry” tab.
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast-tools.php
Estimating the number of yeast cells is based on the visible percentage of non yeast material in your harvested slurry. Refrigerate your harvest for a few days until the slurry is compacted and the beer layer on top is clear.

This is a good calculator for estimating viability of stored yeast.

A great pitch rate/starter calculator too. This calculator has an overbuild option for harvesting directly from the starter. With this method you will be able to make a starter with yeast that has never been stressed by fermenting out a beer.

I had been estimating 2 billion cells per ml for my harvests. I have a 1.041 OG beer in the fermentor. The yeast is WY 3711. I estimated 3 billion cells per ml for this one. Seems like the 3 billion estimate was still high. Will be brewing the same beer next week. I plan to estimate 4 billion cells per ml to see what the results will be. This is for my harvested yeast which does not have any hop debris. I would not automatically apply my estimates to your harvest. There will be differences when anything but pure yeast is being used.