Reuse. Yeast

Me getting ready. To rack my brew. And collect the yeast. This will be the 3 time. I am gonna use this yeast than. But how many times. Can you reuse the yeast. Before you toss it out

I did 5 times with Safale US-05 (I think it was 05) but usually I get nervous about getting wild yeast or something worse so for the price of yeast I will go 2 maybe three rounds. I think with painstaking sanitation you technically could go on forever but why when it’s not that expensive.

Me will use it 1 more time. Than toss it out. Reason. Me really on friends. To bring. Yeast. Vials. Shipping takes. To long. So now reuse yeast untill friends come again

I used a yeast and on the 9th pitch it started going awry… If you are good about sanitation… You could safely take it to 5 like Mark points out…
Sneezles61

9 times, wow. did you limit the storage time between re-uses? I’ve seen comments where harvested yeast should be used relatively quickly and not stored for long periods of time.

So you can successfully reuse dry yeast! I’ve seen comments about only reusing liquid yeast; then again, maybe that’s just an economic reason.

Years ago dry yeast was not anywhere near as good as what you get now so I don’t mind reusing it. I just pour or scoop some of the dregs from the primary fermenter and put it in a mason jar with the cover a little loose. Before using it again I step it up with a starter.

Right now I have a wheat ready to keg with Wyeast 3068 and only do one each summer so I will probably not save any to store for a year.

Dry yeast has improved in quality and choices have expanded significantly since seven or so years ago when I started. You absolutely can harvest and re-pitch subsequent generations of dry yeast…and of course liquid yeast. I plan on harvesting some 34/70 when my Oktoberfest is finished and re-pitching in a series of subsequent lagers.
I’ve taken it out to seven generations before.

I have no real data to back it up but I’ve read(somewhere)and in my experience certain yeasts with strong characteristics, phenolics, etc may lose some of their character on subsequent pitches…e.g. 3068 and saison yeasts.
Regressing toward a more mundane mean.

How the classic older breweries such as Weihenstephaner maintain quality and yeast character over centuries is amazing. It must involve microbiology and genetic laboratories and using slants to identify single organisms/colonies with desired characteristics /with significant quality control.

thanks for the insight. Can’t wait to reuse the imperial pub ale yeast I just used. If I can duplicate the last fermentation, I might be reusing this stuff a lot.

There is NO limited to how many times you reuse the yeast in theory. What limits the use is your ability to be consistent in its propagation. For example if you harvest off of the starter each time, instead of the fermenter, you can continue for a lot longer because you aren’t stressing the yeast as much. It’s not like the labs that we buy from are saying “Well that was 9 times for this yeast. Better go out in the world and find it again.”

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Ok, I apologize for the really stupid question, but I never even considered saving off of the starter. . .:confused: Same principle I assume? Save some goodies rather than pitch it all and put it in a mason jar? Do you build a bigger starter than you normally would? I haven’t started re-using yet but have been looking into it more recently. I’ve been hesitant to begin because I typically brew very hop forward beers in spring/summer so there is a lot of hop material in the trub, but this may simplify my thinking.

:beers:
Rad

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Great question. You need almost nothing to reseed the next starter. Assuming that you are good at sanitation you only need to save a single fluid ounce which cold crashes to be about 2 teaspoons as it settles. You could even save less but it’s hard to find jars smaller than an ounce.
I’m trying not to buy from Amazon but this is what I use. The company that shipped them was super nice and left a note for me in the package

https://www.amazon.com/GoJars-Premium-Food-Grade-Hexagon-Wedding/dp/B01J91OV46?pd_rd_w=43ozC&pf_rd_p=7669271c-2ef0-42ca-ad73-02617f1bf83b&pf_rd_r=F6CM7DZQT33F6DHED6HZ&pd_rd_r=d3cd0b2a-9ed9-4c6b-bbd5-8baf374d539d&pd_rd_wg=b7i3I&pd_rd_i=B01J91OV4Q&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_1_19_i&th=1

Look at our brewing colleagues in Norway who have save their unique strains of Kviek with a simple wooden yeast ring

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I did do that for a while… but then got lazy…
Sneezles61

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Me disapointed. Now. Few weeks ago did find a separation. Funnel. For only. 10 dollar. Me try to use it today. But. Seems my yeast get stuck. At the bottom. I open the valve. Nothing comes out. A real bummer. Well live and learn

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