Would there typically be any signs of infection when i do i starter with the harvested yeast, off smells etcs? I have harvested 1450 and 1056, pure white yeast cakes that i have yet to use, been in the frig a few weeks
My concern is saving 8 dollars over potentially ruining a batch sice there is a few transfers and containers involved… However i feel not harvesting yeast is pretty foolish so i think im goign to go for it just looking for a bit of reassurance from those who have been brewing for awhile .
I was going to ask this in the yeast area, but since it came up here …
How long can you keep it?
I harvested 3 quarts of un-rinsed yeast from a 1063 beer about a month ago. I want to use it in a 1054 (Sweet Stout Kit) this weekend.
Can I just pitch 2 quarts or should I make a starter from 1?
Also it’s been in the back of the fridge the whole time, should I let it get up to room temp before pitching?
I read up on this before collecting the yeast, but apparently I didn’t commit it to memory! :roll:
[quote=“dobe12”]+1. Have been harvesting yeast for the last 18months or so. No issues. Just keep good sanitation practices and you’ll be fine.
Having said that, if you harvest yeast from a beer that did turn out to have an issue, I wouldn’t reuse that yeast.[/quote]
Exactly right.
Keep everything clean and properly sanitized and you’ll be fine…and if you’re doing everything right and use common sense, you can keep harvesting through several successive brews. These days I usually stop at 8 or 9 re-pitches but in the past I’ve gone considerably more than that.
I started harvesting & re-using my yeasts around 22 years ago and have had no major problems in doing so. In fact if anything, in my opinion the harvested yeasts generally perform better than the original pitch. I usually set aside 1/3 to 1/2 of the saved slurry depending on the strength of the beer I’m making (and more if the yeast is stored longer). The remainder goes right into the boil as food for the yeasties that will be doing the actual work (a tip I learned from the folks at Fuller’s in the UK).
You can keep it for a few months. I’ve used 6 month old harvested yeast. For the first few weeks (1-3) you can just pitch what you have assuming you collected enough. After that you should be making a starter. I usually rinse the yeast then store it because then you have a relatively accurate idea of how much yeast you actually have. If you don’t rinse it, you can’t be sure how much is yeast and how much is other stuff. Most yeast cakes will yield enough yeast for 2-3 more fermentations. So I’d use about 1/2 of what you collected to be safe. At 4 weeks, I’d think you’d have enough yeast from 1/2 a cake to ferment your new beer, but you may want to make a starter to be safe. And not that there is a big difference in gravities between your two beers, but you generally want to pitch yeast from lower gravity beers into about the same gravity beer or higher. You don’t want to go from higher to lower. Your two beers are close so I think you’d be ok. Just something to think about in the future.I won’t collect yeast from a beer that had an OG of 1.070 or higher. I just start fresh.
[quote=“beerme11”]Would there typically be any signs of infection when i do i starter with the harvested yeast, off smells etcs? I have harvested 1450 and 1056, pure white yeast cakes that i have yet to use, been in the frig a few weeks
My concern is saving 8 dollars over potentially ruining a batch sice there is a few transfers and containers involved… However i feel not harvesting yeast is pretty foolish so i think im goign to go for it just looking for a bit of reassurance from those who have been brewing for awhile .[/quote]
When I did my first starters, I noticed what I thought was an off smell. Smelling like sour, creamed corn. I dumped it. I thought it was infected from using a bumpy, plastic bottle. Next one I did, I used a glass jug and got the same smell. Dumped it again, thinking it was the yeast being 8 months old. Third one, same smell so I figured it’s supposed to smell that way. All my starters have smelled the same and I’ve been pitching them with success.
[quote=“ibeentired”]I was going to ask this in the yeast area, but since it came up here …
How long can you keep it?
I harvested 3 quarts of un-rinsed yeast from a 1063 beer about a month ago. I want to use it in a 1054 (Sweet Stout Kit) this weekend.
Can I just pitch 2 quarts or should I make a starter from 1?
Also it’s been in the back of the fridge the whole time, should I let it get up to room temp before pitching?
I read up on this before collecting the yeast, but apparently I didn’t commit it to memory! :roll: [/quote]
Yeast will keep a long time in the fridge. Years. Anything over a month, use a starter.
You can pitch 2qts in your beer without a starter. Be sure to pour off (decant) as much of the liquid you can from the yeast. Leave a little to swirl it up. You do not need to worry about getting warm. Pitch straight from the fridge, after decanting, of course.
I have kept harvested yeast for over a year and been able to build it up to pitch.
Just last weekend I brewed and planned to pitch my most recent harvest of Wyeast 1450. It looked cloudy after being in the fridge for over 3 weeks and it appeared to have some white stuff floating on the top. Smelled fine but I did not want to risk a big batch of beer so I pitched two older harvests of 1450 which were 3-4 months old. Because I discovered the problem at pitch time, I did not have time to do a starter so I took the risk.
24 hours later, I had very strong fermentation, so it clearly worked
I get 5 pint jars (sometimes 6 sometimes 4) from a 5 gallon fermentor wash. I use each as a “package” of yeast ala Mr. malty and roll on from there. Have had 0 problems. Have so far gone out to the 6th gen on some American Ale yeast. On Gen 3 of some Denny’s 50. I also see much less lag time using harvested yeast BUT… I always do a starter.
