Hi All,
I planned to brew next Saturday using the cake/trub/yeast batch currently in primary. Question; if I keg what’s in primary this Sunday, can I pour off the entire trub/yeast into a santized container, refrigerate and then pitch the whole shebang next Saturday into my new batch?
Thanks, Mike
You could, but most likely don’t need that much yeast. I always rinse yeast, so that would be my recommendation. What was the OG of the current beer on the cake and what will be the OG of the new beer? Chances are you’ll only need maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the current cake for the new beer.
The original OG was 1.048. The batch I’m going to make will be +/- 1.095. Thoughts?
In that case, yes, use the whole thing.
In that case, yes, use the whole thing.[/quote]
+1! Pitch it all. I’d still recommend rinsing first and just pitching the nice, clean, rinsed yeast, but that’s just my personal preference. I don’t like my trubs intermingling.
Thanks Guys! So if I have a couple three solid inches of trub/yeast in the primary after siphon, about how much clean water would I add, swirl and pour off? My problem is a container big enough to hold the trub and water for the 20-30 minute settling time before final pour off. Out of curiosity, what do you use? Thanks for the input.
Hell man, I’d just pour like a pint or two of water in, swirl it around to get the yeast off the bottom, then dump equal parts into sanitized mason jars. I like to cover the jars with plastic wrap (assumed sanitized out of the box) before putting the lid on. Make sure to sanitize the lip of the fermenter with starsan spray or flame the lip with a stick lighter for a little bit (if using a carboy).
I add a gallon of purified, bottled water and give it a swirl. Let the fermentor sit for about an hour and pour off the liquid into a 1 gallon glass jug. Let that jug sit in the fridge for maybe an hour, then pour that liquid off into mason jars. After a few days, you’ll have a few mason jars with a layer of yeast on the bottom. Just pour off the beer/water solution and pitch all that yeast into your new beer.
Cool. So now you have two mason’s in the fridge slowly settling. After a day or so all the yeast will be sitting on a healthy pile of trub right? When it’s time to pitch, how do you go about getting that lovely while layer of yeast off the trub in order to pitch clean? OR, do you just pitch the whole thing and call it a day? Thanks for the input and patience with me.
Dobe, thanks. I didn’t get your post in time of my post. Beersk, thanks as well. I’ve never repitched before, hence the novice questions.
If you go slow and are careful while pouring the liquid off from the primary to the jug and then again from the jug to the mason jars, you should get only yeast at the end. Some trub may make it all the way, but it’s no big deal. Some people will just pour a new wort directly on top of a whole yeast cake, trub and all. So a little in the final mason jars can’t hurt.
Many thanks!
I don’t worry about the trub. I just try to only reuse yeast from beers with low amounts of hops and light colored malts. I don’t worry about much else, the yeast will find their way.
For instance, I just brewed a Helles-style beer with Wyeast 1007 German ale, got 3 pint size jars of good looking yeast filled about half way. Plenty for a batch of beer up to 1.060 or whatever for the next month. Easy. I can see a little trub, but it’s nothing to concern oneself with. I’ll probably brew another Helles style or light colored German beer with the 3rd jar to get another generation of yeast with it.
