I’ve read many of the posts on reusing yeast and washing yeast but have never done it myself. I brewed a batch on 9/6 and transfered a secondary on the 15th. At that time I swirled up the carboy and dumped some of the yeast/trub into a growler and put it in my fridge. I sat like that till yesterday and I decided to play around a make a starter and see what it did. I added some of what I saved and today it looks like the picture included. I’m gonna brew this weekend and have some new yeast on the way. Just curious…would any of you use what I currently have in the starter I did yesterday?
That’s a beauty. It’s good yeast so if it’s usable for the style you’re brewing, GO FOR IT!
You have got a perfectly good starter going. Use it for this batch and save what you have on order for a spare for future
How much yeast did you pitch into the starter? I’d use it either way, but 400 mL is awfully small, so you might need to step it up again.
I used DME like I would any other starter I made and tried to add yeast in the amount I would normally have from a vial or smack pack, I won’t be brewing till Saturday so maby I’ll add a little more tomorrow.
Appreciate the help and comments!
That looks picture-perfect to me.
You could probably get away with pitching it as is, but if it were me I’d step it up a bit more especially if it was destined for something more than a ‘session’ brew.
Looks beautiful, though!
After some of the replies I got saying my starter was maybe too small, I added some additional yeast to the starter. I brewed Friday evening and was a little dissapointed on Saturday morning to see the carboy was quiet…no activity at all. So I spot checked during the morning and at one point had gotten out a fresh vial of yeast and was going to make up another starter when I then started to see some sighs of life. By Saturday night she was chruning ang bubbling pretty good and still going strong this morning. I think because I had put the carboy in a big tub of cold water thinking I was going the prevent the temp from going too high, I may have slowed things up. I had pulled it out of the water on Saturday thinking that may have been the problem and the temp rose from 64 to 70.
I think I’m good.
Don’t worry, even with a starter there may be some lag time in the start of fermentation. Overnight might not be enough as you have seen.
You had a small starter but still better that just the vial alone. So your fermentation should have been only a bit quicker than just pitching a vial alone.
If you are at 70 now I would get it back in the swamp cooler now. The fermentation will raise the wort temperature.
I be careful not to lower the temperature too much. You don’t want to shock the yeast.
Sitting at 70 degrees in my basement. I’m leaving as is for now. This is a WLP001 btw so 70 would seem to be a good temp.
