i want to start reusing yeast to save some money, i ferment 2.5-3 gallon batches in kegs, then bottle straight from the keg,floating diptube,beergun blah blah blah and my question is if i brew a low gravity 1040-43 irish stout for example when its done and i bottle it is it ok to rack stronger fresh wort like 1080+ directly in for say a breakfast stout? and how soon would i need to get fresh wort in there, if i bottle 1st irish stout batch on saturday would the yeast slurry be ok sitting until sunday for the breakfast stout?
A few of us in here have and do re-use yeast. Your results for a bigger brew being pitched on a fresh yeast cake will be much better… I’d try leave about 1” beer cap on top of the yeast, and cold. Then you’d be good for a few days.
If you look around here at previous posts, you’ll find conversations about this.
Sneezles61
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Some here may say that you risk an infection when racking onto a yeast cake in your fermentation vessel. That said, I have done this a few time without any problem. It actually worked very well going from a lower gravity beer to a high gravity. I did try to package the finished beer and rack the fresh wort same day. Makes for a long brewing day though.
By using kegs to ferment in you have the ability to seal them and purge the O2 giving the slurry an extra layer of protection so I would give it a try. You will be surprised how fast it takes off and ferments out I think.
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I’ve had a cake sit for a day or two and reused it no problem. I also had an imperial ipa stall and swirled the yeast up from a recently racked beer and dumped it in and it came out fine. I paid close attention to good sanitary practices, pretty much sprayed all the lids and fermenters down before I opened them, the usual stuff.
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i have another question regarding yeast and figured ask here rather then start a whole new thread, dry yeast packs , im hearing conflicting answers when i search online to the amount of viable cells in a 11.5 g pack for this example us05, some say 200 billion another source says 69 billion, which is a drastic difference, so i was under the impression that dry yeast has alot more cells per pack then liquid but according to brewers friend calculator dry packs have less, so i dont really know what to believe, again thank you all for all the past,present and hopefully future help, cheers
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I roll over 3 or 4 lagers off an original pitch of 34/70 lager yeast no problems. I usually start with a higher gravity Bock so I pitch 2 packs. I guess if you started with a lower gravity beer you could just use one. Same with ales I assume. I generally dont repitch IPA yeast because it usually has alot of hop material in it but a clean ale no problems.
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I pitch one packet per brew of dry yeast and the only time I had an issue was with 3 year old dry yeast…
Well, wet yeast I’ve had way more issues… I’m not sure with 5, even 10 gallon batches that counting yeast matters… the little packets are ALL designed for 5 gallon homebrew…
Should you feel so compelled, do a starter. I have.
Sneezles61
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As to your first question- couple days would be fine. If you can’t fit it in that time frame pour the yeast into a sanitized mason jar and cover it with Saran Wrap and use a rubber band to keep it in place.
As for your second question- unless you’re brewing a very high gravity beer or lager one packet is plenty. I’ve become a huge fan of dry yeast now that they have so many more options. They’re easy (no starter), way cheaper (price of liquid yeast is higher, plus the ingredients for a starter), and convenient (can brew more on a whim).
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so 1 pack of us05 should be ok with 2.5-3 gallon 1080 gravity batch? i agree with you loopie, dry yeast really makes things more streamline and being able to brew literally last minute is really cool
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A big brew… take a cup of wort, cool off to room temp. (Do this just before for go to the boil) add your yeast to rehydrate, shake or stir to mix well. Once you have your 5 gallons of wort completed, add your new yeast slurry as usual.
Sneezles61
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Thats plenty for 3 gallons if it were 5 I might pitch 2 depending on the style. You could rehydrate like @sneezles61 says
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