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Reusing yeast slurry or cake

  • BeerRay1986
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3 years 1 month ago #5202 by BeerRay1986
Reusing yeast slurry or cake was created by BeerRay1986
Hey brewers

Hope everyone is well and brewing! Nothing else to do in Melbourne lol.

Questions I have is. Does anyone reuse yeast slurry without washing? How long do you or have you kept it for without washing? how much slurry do you scoop out/pour out? And finally how much do you re pitch on your new brew?

Cheers Ray

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3 years 1 month ago #5206 by Finnroo
Replied by Finnroo on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Hey there Ray, So, I always reuse my slurry without washing. Usually I swish the slurry around the fermenter after transfer and pour into 3 sanitized jars, Im guessing they hold about 250 to 300 mls or so.. You will notice that it settles down in each jar once the foamy slurry settles and often I will top them up a bit but you don't need to. Then straight into the fridge. On brew day i tip out the beer on top of the yeast that has settled out and then pitch straight in or you can do a starter as I often do but you don't need to. If you take a jar out of the fridge at the beginning of brew day and let it sit, the yeast/slurry float back into suspension with the warming of the day, you don't really want that so drain the top fluid/beer of the top strait away so as to avoid that. Then you can put the yeast back in the fridge until you want to pitch or leave it out to warm up a bit if you want. I normally put it in my fermenting fridge that set at fermenting temp but i don't think it matters although I've heard a lot about pitching yeast into the wort at the same temp. I personally don't think it matters but up to you, i haven't had any issues either way.
How much is enough? well, with that amount works fine with or without a starter. As far as storage goes, I'm comfortable up to 6 months in the fridge.
Hope this has helped, you gain confidence the more you do it. Also Im happy do 6 generations. Cheers mate
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3 years 1 month ago #5207 by BeerRay1986
Replied by BeerRay1986 on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Finroo thanks fir the advice mate I did exactly what you said and it’s off like a rocket!! I did a cheap k&k ipa yesterday to try it out within one hour of putting it in the fermenter it was off! I pitched about 1 cup at 25c of the US05 slurry. I had it in the fridge at 3 degrees for 5 days it stayed pretty active to poured the beer/water off and no problems at all smelt fine. I’ve got a 1318 London ale yeast on an all grain bitter I’ve just done and I’m doing a dark mild so I think I might split batch that one with some slurry and lallemand London ale dried yeast I have and see what the results are

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3 years 1 month ago #5208 by Gash
Replied by Gash on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
I cant answer I did advanced beer school... umm,, hmmm

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3 years 4 weeks ago #5209 by Finnroo
Replied by Finnroo on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Your welcome Ray. I did two kit brews last week. The first one took of like a rocket and the second not so much. I remember when I pitched the second thinking there's not much in that jar. Took 48 hours to show some sign of fermentation. It probably would have been fine but I tipped another jar of slurry in for good measure and this morning it was cranking.
We don't know how much good yeast is in the jar of slurry. That's where rinsing come in and we can see the seperation . I do it often (slurry) and it goes well. Great it worked out.
Sorry Gash for my seat of your pants brewing method. Lol. Cheers guys

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3 years 3 weeks ago #5210 by BeerRay1986
Replied by BeerRay1986 on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Gday

Yeah it’s still powering along finroo thanks for the replies. This has been by far the most rouge I’ve ever brewed I was purely testing out the slurry thing which is a why I did k&k with some added bits and pieces! I didn’t even bother temp controlling this one just slammed it in the garage towel around it sitting at 20-22 I love by the seat of your pants brewing hahaha. Cheers

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3 years 3 weeks ago #5211 by BeerRay1986
Replied by BeerRay1986 on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
hahhah come on gash

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3 years 3 weeks ago #5221 by Gash
Replied by Gash on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
There is a couple of rules of thumb, of course not set in stone, some may have good luck!

Beer school would say up to 10 time reuse, thats in extremely careful commercial conditions.
What most recommend is up to 6 times but again you need to be very clean and collect clean yeast, that doesnt mean rinsing or even acid washing.
Myself go past 2 or 3 max.
What can happen even if you're extremely careful is each batch the yeast can mutate and change, some times the changes are good, other times they arent. If you're just experimenting thats all good, but when it come to brew that same beer you brewed 2 batches ago that might not happen.

Storage of yeast is hard. Yep for sure can whack some in the fridge but after two weeks or so you'll get a huge die off in numbers, there are complicated ways of adding oils or glycerine and even freezing samples that all make the yeast last longer. The die off isnt so important if you make starters before each batch and check the smell etc of the starter.

This is a long topic, but basically I'm to lazy or busy to be building up starters after freezing small amounts of yeast, that takes a few weeks starting before brew day and that just doesnt fit into my lifestyle. The other thing is the time I put into brewing I dont want to waste a batch or have a beer I dont want to drink. I also dont want to add that risk into my video making, I spend a week or more on brewing/filming/editing and then it all falls away with dodgy yeast.

The ferment is the most important part, wouldnt matter if you started with grain malted on the thighs of a young maiden and brewed in a sterilised bubble, if the yeast isnt up to scratch its all been a total waste.. You can learn from it, yes, but once is enough lol.

Thats why I usually use fresh yeast each time.

The best way I think is to make a big starter, use half in a batch, and store the other half in the fridge, and repeat next time, again I'd only do that a couple of times.

Otherwise just bloody go for it and see how you go!

Lagers I often brew a full batch as a "starter" I collect all the yeast, clean the fermenter and re-pitch near on immediately, I did it in a video somewhere using the fermentasaurus.

Cheers!
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3 years 3 weeks ago #5222 by Gash
Replied by Gash on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Should of said, yep yeast cake is fine, but I do a few things more carefully when using one, I'll try and leave any trub in the kettle, that should be a given anyway, and for clarity and more cleanliness also try and leave any cold beak material behind as well, or remove it, prior to pitching yeast, from the fermenter.
I typically won't dry that first beer to keep hops out of it too.
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3 years 3 days ago #5243 by BeerRay1986
Replied by BeerRay1986 on topic Reusing yeast slurry or cake
Gday brewers

can report the old coopers brew A IPA that I reused the us-05 slurry on is sensational maybe it’s the extra bits I added but pretty happy to say it worked for me reusing the slurry it’s got no funny flavours and it is crystal clear after only 2 weeks in the bottle and carbed up perfectly. I really did push the limits on this one as I re used the slurry just poured it off onto a sanitised jar (it was off a lighter beer I did) and I just pitched it at a fairly high temp and let it sit in the garage it fermented in the 20’s and cold crashes it for one day at 1 degree and bulk primed it I’m very happy with it and would recommend if want to try to re use the slurry go for it I think it’s worth a shot.
cheers
Ray

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Drunken Ramblings

Finnroo's Avatar Finnroo - Fri 2 Jun - 16:22

Kit Brew Day Tomorrow, Black Rock Pale ale and number 40 larger brew enhancer by mangrove jacks. And possibly some honey. Yeast US05 ??

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lol

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Brewing a familiar Dark Mild later today. (hint: Was the bastard tired? Or was he run over by a tire (tyre). No one really knows). One thing for sure. It will be a treat when done. Cheers!

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