Yeast Repitching Questions (First-timer)

With yeast washing I always seem to get less than desired, though it is typically very healthy yeast. Here are some recommendations from my experience. First, use it soon, not matter how sanitary you were, you want to be sure nothing bad has a chance to grow, plus the yeast is only going to get weaker the longer you wait. In addition, always keep the yeast in the fridge. I am sure you knew this but thought I would point it out.
Also, I either make a small starter (around 750ml), and or use the yeast it to make a low alc beer. If first making a low alc beer, once you rack the beer off that yeast (whether for bottling or conditioning) add on the wort from the higher SG beer on top of the cake.

 

Scroll to the bottom of this page for the goodies, no matter what type of jar you are using you can get a good guess at the percentages they are showing. I hope this helps.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrates.cfm

 

I am also a n00b at re-pitching. My question is actually in terms of harvesting...

I have an APA in primary right now that I brewed on Sunday. I pitched a vile of WLP051 and it was going strong Mon and Tues but has settled down quite a bit this morning.

I reckon my main option is to scoop it off the top, but I fear it has already started to settle (It's in a bottling bucket, so its hard to see. I can open it up to check it out tonight).

If it has fallen, can I tilt the bucket so that it settles over the spigot and then just open the nozzle up and collect the slurry that comes out?

Will either method of collection get me enough yeast to pitch into a mid-weight 4 gal porter this weekend?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

When do you plan on brewing the porter?

The easiest thing to do would be to transfer or bottle the APA the same day you brew the Porter. All you have to do is pour the cooled wort on the yeast cake. Otherwise, if that doesn't work out you can do what is called yeast washing and store the yeast for longer (or you can do this if you have a bunch of sediment, i.e. protein, hop material).

Steps for yeast washing can be found on-line and through sources like the brewing network, but here is a quick run down.

Boil a gallon or so of water, then let cool.
Dump about 1/2 gallon of water on yeast cake and swirl around, let rest for a few minutes
Collect the liquid on top (not the sediment on the bottom, that is not healthy yeast) in a very sanitized jar/jug/growler.
Let container sit for about 20 minutes, then decant to another jar and repeat by adding the remaining water

The main idea is the yeast will stay suspended longer than the sediment, so letting the sediment and dead yeast settle you are left with healthy yeast in suspension.

here are a couple of links

http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/yeast_washing_the_wyeast_way.htm

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Washing_yeast

 

Thanks for that info.

Actually, the timing is difficult because I am doing my new brew too early, not too late. I don't want to transfer the APA off of the yeast this weekend as it will only have been in primary for a week at that point.

Are there any reliable ways to get enough yeast out of the primary this week to use in a seperate vessle this weekend? Again, as stated above...

I reckon my main option is to scoop it off the top, but I fear it has already started to settle (It's in a bottling bucket, so its hard to see. I can open it up to check it out tonight).

If it has fallen, can I tilt the bucket so that it settles over the spigot and then just open the nozzle up and collect the slurry that comes out?

Will either method of collection get me enough yeast to pitch into a mid-weight 4 gal porter this weekend?

 

This is the part where I get flamed. I never wash my yeast. I harvest it out of primary into a sanitized vessel (mason jar, beer bottle, etc) then I put it in the fridge.....trub and all. I repitch it within a month usually. I've never had a issue with attenuation, lags, poor peformance, etc. I've got multi-generations of yeast still going. The only hard and fast rule I have is- I make a starter if the yeast is over a month old in the fridge. The one exception is when I accidently used a kolsch yeast that was pretty old, like 8+ months and it did just fine. In fact that beer went on to score a 39 at a comp and took that cat. Also- I just had my bitter score a 40 and it was the 7th generation of repitched yeast, that has all been unwashed.......if you believe in comp scores.....which I take with a grain of salt. But the point is- I've never had a yeast issue doing this. Terrible practice I know.....there goes the neighborhood!

 

A little bit of a bump here. So I rinsed my yeast last night and I think I did it a little wrong. I took my yeast cake, added some boiled (then cooled) water then swished it up good and dumped it into sanitized bell jars. So now I have 5 jars of 80% beer with 20% settled yeast, no trub because there wasn't much hops. I think I should have let it settle before moving to the jars right? So my question now is when I want to do a batch, do I just add the yeast from one of these jars? Two? How do I know?

 

there will still be a lot of trub mixed in such as dead yeast, protein, etc., not just hop material How I typically do it is fill a one gallon glass jug with the water/yeast cake solution, let it settle for 20 minutes, decant that to a 3/4 gallon jug, swirl and let sit for 20 minutes, then fill into bell jars.

As for how to use the stuff you have. I would suggest using at least two jars, or making a starter (I like doing this if the yeast is over 4 weeks anyways).

Do you have pictures of your jars of yeast?

 

I think you're in good shape. The healthy layer of yeast that settles near the bottom of the jar won't be very thick. In the mason jars I use I usually end up with a layer about 1 inch in thickness.

Just store them in the fridge for now until you're ready to use them. As to how much yeast to add for your next batch, it mainly depends on the original gravity of your recipe. Just use this (also given above):

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

You might want to make a starter to get the little guys going before pitching into your wort. If your next batch has a planned OG of, lets say, 1.060, I'd make a quart-sized starter using the yeast from 1 of your jars. An even larger beer would require an even larger starter.

 

Here's what I'm working with.

 

it is a little hard to tell, but within the sediment on the bottom are there two layers? If so, the lighter colored one on the top is the yeast, the rest is sediment.

How many I would use is dependent on the plans I had for them. If you only think you will will do a few beers then I would use two with maybe a starter. If a lot of beers then one with a starter. It also would depend on the age of the yeast and the OG.

If you do plan on doing lots of beers with this yeast you can always pitch a beer on the yeast cake after the first beer is transferred/bottled.

 

It looks like there's a small layer of sediment, so thats good to know. I guess I'll pitch two jars of yeast with a starter and see where that takes me. This is great, I now have yeast for 3 batches!