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Using harvested yeast

Yeast & Fermentation
#1

So I harvested my first yeast the other night from a Black IPA. Pretty sure I did everything right after reading Palmer’s How to Brew and watching a few videos.

I used the standard 16oz canning jars for this and came out with a few of them and it’s still settling after washing so not sure how it will level off yet. Do I just use a whole jar with a starter for the next batch I do? Haven’t found much on guidelines as to how much to use in terms of harvested yeast. Will a jar be too much, not enough, just right??? I know gravity would affect how much to pitch but I don’t really do any crazy strong beers.

#2

Generally, 1/3 of a yeastcake from a properly pitched, 1.045ish ale will give you a proper pitch for a 1.045ish ale. I split yeastcakes in thirds. If the yeast harvested more than 2 weeks before I repitch it, I also do a starter to make sure the yeast are healthy before they go back into wort.

#3

Great, I divided mine up into three jars as well so that seems to be good to go by.

#4

I usually just pitch a whole jar. I get around 200 to 300ml in a jar after the yeast and trub has all settled. I decant off the spent beer, leaving just enough to make it all pourable, which leaves with around 300ml altogether if I have 200ml at the start settled out. One of those has plenty of yeast for most beers.

#5

Mr Malty has a repitching from slurry option.

#6

It sure does. I kinda just started doing it. I think I’m going to set a rule not to repitch any slurry that has a viability lower than like 50 or 60% unless I make a starter. Does that sound reasonable?

#7

I personally go with 75% (two weeks at room temp, one month refrigerated, or some combination thereof). But I’m pretty conservative when it comes to my yeast.

#8

I split my yeast cakes between 3 canning jars. Two weeks ago(28 Nov) I woke up my WLP940s for a mexican lager. turned out, not sure why, but 1 of 3 were dead.

I pitched each into a 1qt starter to wake them up. it took approximately 3 days before i saw any real activity, but only in 2, and no activity in the 3rd. Of the two remaining, on day 4, i swirled vigorously to get every thing into suspension, then let them sit for about 5 hours to let all the big chunks of old cake settle. then i poured off the liquid of those 2 into a single 3 quart starter. Then 24hours later, day 5, I had great activity in the starter. I let it do its thing for another 36 hours, then as it was done, i cold crashed it.

On the morning of day 7, I brewed. That evening, I decanted the starter and pitched (10pm) it into 5.5 gallons of mex lager at 50F. On the morning of day 8 I had a 1 inch krausen in my carboy.

happy, happy times.

cheers.

#9

I personally go with 75% (two weeks at room temp, one month refrigerated, or some combination thereof). But I’m pretty conservative when it comes to my yeast.[/quote]
Not a bad thing, I suppose. I pitched a jar Saturday night into 3.5 gal of 1.072 wort that was harvested on 11/17 and it has a couple inches of krausen now, which is a happy sight. Mr Malty said it was like 57% viability, but I decided to use it anyway. Any long and I would’ve needed to make a starter, I’m thinking. Maybe should have anyway, but oh well. We’ll see what happens.

On another note, I just harvested the 2nd generation of WY1450 last night from an oatmeal stout. The yeast looks pretty dark. Would it have negative consequences if I used that yeast for a lighter colored beer? Even a pale ale?

#10

Probably not much of an impact if any. For safe measure you could always rinse it again to get more trub and beer out of it.

#11

Probably not much of an impact if any. For safe measure you could always rinse it again to get more trub and beer out of it.[/quote]
I might do that to one of the jars, yeah. I guess I might as well find out for myself if it makes a difference pitching it into a lighter beer.

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