I brewed Milo’s Alt on 11-03-2012 using Wyeast 1007 German Ale. I plan on re-using this yeast to make Kai’s Alt next.
My question is; should I let fermentation finish, say it’s done in 4 weeks, rack off the yeast and into a keg to lager for 2 months, then brew Kai’s Alt and re-pitch the same day?
Or should I go ahead and lager the Milo’s on the yeast cake for a couple months, then rack, make a big starter and pitch into the batch of Kai’s Alt?
I read somewhere that alt’s benefit from lagering on the yeast cake, and that’s what I tried in a previous alt that turned out pretty good.
I’ve never heard of a beer benefitting from lagering on the yeast, but I’m not a big alt brewer, so maybe that is the common wisdom. I would rack to keg, lager in the keg on the first alt. Ideally, you would want to rinse the yeast from the first one before pitching into the second one, and get it active by making a small starter, especially for lagers and hybrids.
A method to consider for next time, especially if you have a fermentation fridge:
-after boil, chill beer to below 140 degrees
-run off to fermenter
-place fermenter in fridge, dial temp to pitching temp
-let chill the remainder of the way overnight
-the next day, or 4-8 hours later, vigorously dump the wort into a different, clean and sanitized fermenter, leaving the trub behind in the first one
-aerate additionally and cold-pitch yeast
This will do two things:
1.) you will have a virtually trub-less beer
2.) If you plan on reusing the yeast, it will already be pretty much rinsed, and you don’t need to harvest/decant in the fridge. Then the sediment in that one will be practically pure slurry and you can direct pitch into the next batch.
[quote=“metron-brewer”]I brewed Milo’s Alt on 11-03-2012 using Wyeast 1007 German Ale. I plan on re-using this yeast to make Kai’s Alt next.
My question is; should I let fermentation finish, say it’s done in 4 weeks, rack off the yeast and into a keg to lager for 2 months, then brew Kai’s Alt and re-pitch the same day?
Or should I go ahead and lager the Milo’s on the yeast cake for a couple months, then rack, make a big starter and pitch into the batch of Kai’s Alt?
I read somewhere that alt’s benefit from lagering on the yeast cake, and that’s what I tried in a previous alt that turned out pretty good.[/quote]
Rack off the yeast to lager the first Alt. Use half the yeast for Kai’s Alt. Save the other half in a sterilized jar for future batches.
Kind of what I was thinking, keep it simple right?
[quote=“Pietro”]This will do two things:
1.) you will have a virtually trub-less beer
2.) If you plan on reusing the yeast, it will already be pretty much rinsed, and you don’t need to harvest/decant in the fridge. Then the sediment in that one will be practically pure slurry and you can direct pitch into the next batch.[/quote]
I already strain my wort as it is transferrred to the fermentor so I’m not to worried about trub reduction or washing the yeast. Again, I’m trying to keep things simple, until I see a need to complicate procedures.
Keep it simple is always good. I rinse my yeast when I’m changing styles but if you’re going from one beer to a similar beer you can just jar it and pitch. Now, if you were going from a hoppy stout to an Alt, I might say rinse it to try and get the least amount of hoppy stout in there as possible but for you’re situation you should be fine.
Also, the less you mess with yeast the less chance you have of infecting it so dumping half into a jar is the easiest way to go. I like to get anal about it and use a lighter to burn the lip of carboy before pouring and then spraying it with some sanitizer to make sure nothing gets in there.
I ferment in buckets so I always spray the outside with StarSan before I open it. Depending on how thick the slurry is, I usually will just use a sanitized measuring cup to scoop from the fermentor into the new batch or sanitized jar. This also allows me to get an idea on how much slurry I pitched.
