I’m brewing a breakfast stout on Monday and plan to pitch WY 1084 yeast that I harvested off a prior batch. This will be my first time using harvested yeast.
I just swirled up the cake with the last 1/4 inch or so of beer in my fermenter and poured it into 2 quart mason jars. I rinsed them by allowing them to settle, poured off the beer, added boiled/cooled water, swirled good, allowed to settle then poured off the top ‘clean yeast’ into one quart jar. It was almost a full quart that has now settled into a nice light colored cake of yeast and clear amber liquid on top. How much of it should I use? Should I make a starter or just decant and use the cake from the quart jar?
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/1 ... posed.html
If you believe Woodlandbrew’s research, you tossed as much yeast as you kept. And possibly kept many of the “bad bugs”.
If the yeast is ~3 weeks old, just pitch it. If older, make a starter.
harvested march 5 so will be right at 3 weeks by Monday when I plan to brew.
Made my first starter. Boiled up a 1L starter wort with 1100ml water and 110g light pils DME, cooled it and put it in a sanitized 2L growler, spooned in 4 fat rounded spoons of the harvested 1084, aerated the crap out of it and covered it with sanitized alum foil. Covered with a towel and put it in a warm dark cozy spot. I figure I’ll swirl it a few times a day til I’m ready to pitch it Monday evening. Call me the human stir plate.
@mvsawyer you need to get brewin’ man! Those primaries look sad and lonely!
[quote=“Nighthawk”]Woodland Brewing Research: Yeast Washing Exposed
If you believe Woodlandbrew’s research, you tossed as much yeast as you kept. And possibly kept many of the “bad bugs”.
If the yeast is ~3 weeks old, just pitch it. If older, make a starter.[/quote]
Yea I know…i’ve read that and my last harvest of WL04 I just scooped into a couple mason jars and left as is. I’ll decant the liquid off and use them without rinsing. There was still a pretty even amount of yeast/trub separation in my ‘rinsed’ 1084. Live and learn or live and keep making the same mistakes with your fingers crossed.
I store my slurry in ziplock plastic bags in a small ail and use a batch either the day I harvested or within 2 weeks usually. Otherwise I make a starter, so in that event, I usually just go with new yeast in the starter. I use half of a slurry for a just harvested lager beer and about a third for ales.
