So me did yesterday. A palm beer clone. Just check the brew area. Nice krausen going on and fermenting. I did use the. Yeast i did wash. A week ago. But question. How many times i can reuse the yeast. Before. Tossing it out.
The number of times you can reuse yeast is dependent on the strain. I have some yeast that lost their character after 3 generations and I have others I have lost count on how many generations they are at now.
I do not ever wash my yeast however. I was told that stresses the yeast early on so I stopped. I just harvest at the end of the primary. I think harvesting from the starter is the easiest and safest way to keep the yeast going for the longest time without character change.
Not very scientific but I have used yeast 5 times but honestly after about the third round I worry about picking up wild yeast so for the price of a new packet, smack pack, vial or whatever I quit reusing it. A new starter every time because it proves it is viable and easy to do.
I also do not wash the yeast just grab some slurry and put it in a mason jar.
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I push some and when I start getting a background off flavor I’ll not use any more…
But I believe the best way to re-use yeast is overbuild the original yeast pack… Save half… You can do that again and in my taste buds, it doesn’t change…
Sneezles61
Next batch. I will just take the yeast and put in a mason jar. See what it will do. Than create starter from there. One idea play with if i have to make a big starter. Use the harvest yeast. And a vial fresh yeast. Me plan. A higher grav beer soon. Like 1.080.
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I like these 4oz jam jars because they take up so little room in the fridge I share with my family’s food.
I fill up Sanitized jars all the way to the top to create as little head room as possible.
I spray down the rim and sides with Star San before capping.
Since I harvest off of the primary most times I will crack the lids after a half a day to release a little pressure and then crack the lids again in a couple days if I feel like it.
I volunteered in a brewpub to learn from their brewer. He harvested the yeast from their conical fermenters into a Cornelius keg. He placed these in the cooler and repitched 6 times before starting over with a new strain from the manufacturer.
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I’ve gone out to about seven generations before. Whereas I never detected infection, hefe yeast and saison yeast that I’ve used seemed to move toward a blander product than original pitch, so I go about 3 or so pitches like @hd4mark, mostly with a vitality starter, for all except hefeweizens, which I underpitch a fresh pack every time, to get that “flavor pop”.
I dunno, @squeegeethree, that seems like an interesting way to store yeast sans headspace and with a lid…you haven’t had any overflow or explode?
(I’m the guy who had a bottle bomb graveyard and had Caribou slobber shrapnel cut my cheek, so there’s that 
)
I’ve had a pretty big bulge in the metal cap. With the smaller 4oz volume and no headspace there isn’t much room to create a bomb. I’ve never tried this with anything but ale yeast however.
I typically harvest through 3 or 4 generations. My latest batch of 1318 lasted for 7 (probably more if I wanted to) but I decided to dump it and start over new. I do not wash either.
Me will try saturday. Just harvest. Than this will be the 3 time i reuse my yeast kveik oyl 061
