Two questions on yeast starters

[Shawn1]

I have two question about yeast starters. The first is a easy one what is the reason for decanting the starter as apposed to just dumping all the liquid into the wort. Off flavored maybe. The second question is I just realized that I have four IPA kits to brew and they all take WYeast 1056 and I currently only have one yeast pack in the fridge. I could easily buy more except I have read on this site people reuse their yeast. I always transfer my beer into a secondary after two weeks. How do i go about harvesting the spent yeast and how long will is last in the fridge. I am assuming that I will need to make a starter with this yeast.

Thanks in advance.

[uberculture]

1. Two reasons… off flavors, like you say, and also diluting your beer with u hopped light Booze.

2. Oh, boy… lots of opinions on this. You could just pitch on the cake, throw out half of the cake, harvest the cake to split up, or do yeast washing. All are established procedures. You could read up on all of them, but you’ll have to try them all to come to your own conclusion.

[flars]

You can begin by making a starter with the one pack of yeast you have to get a beer going before you need to harvest the current fermenting beer. Make the starter larger than necessary so you can begin another starter as soon as the first one is done. This is the starter/pitch rate calculator I use which has a built in over build calculation. the over build gives you fresh yeast to use for each ferment.

Homebrew Dad's Online Yeast Starter Calculator

Here are two previous threads on harvesting yeast for more information.

Collecting, rinsing and reusing yeast

I'm attempting to reuse some US-05. Once I collect the slurry from the fermenter and rinse and harvest the yeast; should I make a starter or just repitch? Also, can I store the slurry in the fridge and rinse later?

Yeast harvest-WY 3711

The yeast and beer left in the carboy has been swirled into a solution. I leave the carboy on its side for about 15 minutes for materials more solid than yeast to settle out. [image] Poured into two pint jars. Decided not to pour into a quart jar as done previously. Had too many quart jars of yeast. If one pint jar would show infection I'll have a second jar for repitching. This is the yeast after one day in the fridge. Each pint jar has 150 milliliters of yeast. [image] The ye…

Hope this helps. Any question is a good question on this forum.

[wilcolandzaat]

Me make starters always. Do buy five liqued yeast at the time. And make fresh starters. But for the ones who know. I do live on island. Once i do come to the end of my fresh yeast. I start to collect the yeast. And reuse. I dont wash yeast. Just collect. Let it sit pour some layer out untill i do come to the yeast part. Might take 3 or for times. Stick it in the fridge. Once ready do make a starter. It works perfect. Use the older yeast untill i got fresh one in the house again. You find lots of info. Or watch youtube. But the way i do. Simple and perfect. Thanks to this forum. And flars

[Shawn1]

I always have made a starter from my fresh yeast using Northern Brewer Fast Pitch. I generally start it two or three days before I plan on brewing. If I try and reuse my yeast I assume that I just take what is on the bottom of the Carboy after I transfer to a secondary. How much should be retained. Again I assume that I would then proceed like I always have and a few days before make a starter with some Fast Pitch a few days before I plan on brewing.

[sneezles61]

If you have success, then you made it work. Simple, eh? I like to take a fresh batch of yeast and propagate 5-7 more small batches, then retain for use on other brews down the road. I usually can get close to 1/4 of the little canning jars, of yeast. That will take a week, maybe a bit longer to build up slowly, no strong starters, thats with ale. Now as of late, I’ve been doing some lagers, and pitch right back on the whole yeast cake, yes, after a few lagers it gits to be alot of yeast, but I haven’t had any problems. There are many great peeps to help with the how to of lagers on here. Sneezles61