Revisiting Dead Ringer

I was planning on making the jump to all grain with my next batch however, NB has a sale going that I couldn’t resist on extract batches. I decided to pickup 2 “Dead Ringer” kits to try this recipe again since two hearted is one of my favorites. I did make this kit last summer with less than stellar results… Crazy maltiness. As my learning has progressed, it has lead me to believe the yeast wasn’t done at the point when I bottled my first try at this kit. The result was a syrupy sweet taste. Last time I tried, I used Wyeast 1056. This time I decided to go with 1 pk of safale 05 for each to get a drier brew with less maltiness. Been thinking about this a bit and decided to get some thoughts on this: Should I brew them at the same time an pitch 1 packet of yeast into each 5 gallon carboy or brew one kit, pitch two packets of yeast, and harvest the yeast for the second batch? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I had recently brewed the Dead Ringer. Tasted the first one at three weeks in the bottle, very malty and sweet. Thought the Caramel 40 might have been to much. Tasted another at four weeks, pretty good. At five weeks I knew I would be brewing the DR many more times. I brewed with fourth generation harvested WY1056. FG was 1.011.

One pack of SA-05, rehydrated, should take care of the 1.064 beer, if the yeast is fully viable. SA-05 is the same strain of yeast as WY1056. WY1056 will require a starter, of the right size, for a 1.064 beer. Harvested SA-05 would be used for the next brew the same as you would use WY1056.

What was the FG for your brew of the Dead Ringer?

When I brewed Dead Ringer last summer, it was only my 3rd extract batch. I didn’t really understand why I was doing what I was doing when brewing so I followed the recipe’s time frame exactly. I didn’t check if fermentation was complete before racking to a secondary and did not take an FG before bottling. To make things worse, I didn’t make a starter for my WY1056. All of these could have caused my problem. Now, I will not be racking to a secondary and i’ll be letting the yeast tell me when it’s done, not the time in the recipe. I love two hearted and feel that I made some rsther large mistakes the first time around so I thought this kit was worth revisiting.

question: Following the fermentation process of the Dead Ringer with an OG of 1.064 (hopefully), will the yeast cake from the first be healthy enough for my 2nd batch? Would the cake be healthier than pitching a pack of Safale 05?

Harvesting the yeast form your first brew, will yield, at minimum, enough yeast for three more brews. Then from each of those three, you will have yeast for three more brews.
The harvested yeast from a beer using WY1056 or US-05 will have virtually identical characteristics when used for another beer.

I pitched my DR on top of the yeast cake from my Kiwi and it fermented out fine. Something else to consider and is growing in popularity is to get a liquid yeast and make a double starter. Then split that into two parts. Take one part and put it away, then take the second part and make a new starter. You can basically keep doing this before each batch up to the recommended number of reuses (7 if I recall for most strains). This is better than harvesting especially in really hoppy beers, darker beers or ones where there might be a lot of trub.