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Post #2 made 12 years ago
by mally
if you are happy with the pendle witch taste, i would re-use your S-04.
Either wash & re-pitch, or use the whole yeast cake? YMMV
G B
I spent lots of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I squandered
I've stopped drinking, but only when I'm asleep
I ONCE gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Great Britain

Post #5 made 12 years ago
by BobBrews
lee1,

A yeast cake is just the junk left in the fermentation bucket. When you drain out the beer you simply dump your (room temperature) freshly brewed wort into the (newly vacated) bucket. The yeast will be more than enough to start quickly and the old dead yeast and (Gunk) won't harm your new wort! Happily bubbling away in 6? hours!

Washing yeast is a more complicated but better way to save on yeast purchases. You can search on the internet for various methods. It's a lot of work for me so I don't do it and probably never will!
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

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Post #6 made 12 years ago
by lee1
thanks for the replys but if you put wort onto the old cake do you give it a stir :?: [nice link thughes ]
soon be dead thank fxxx for that no pain where im going .

Post #7 made 12 years ago
by BobBrews
lee1,

You take a sanitized spoon? and give it a whirrel! If you use oxygen, oxygenate with a stone or just shake the poop out of it to get in lots of oxygen for the yeast to use. Hopefully you have added yeast nutrient to the wort in the last few minutes of the boil!
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

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Post #8 made 12 years ago
by lee1
sorry bob but that doesnt make sense to me :headhit: what i can understand is if i give the cake a good stir while im on the last ten mins of boil then add the wort :dunno: sorry this is new to me
soon be dead thank fxxx for that no pain where im going .

Post #9 made 12 years ago
by BobBrews
Lee1,

It's after the fermentation is completed! The bucket or bottle that was used to ferment your beer is being reused with all the junk in the bottom of the bucket. The junk is the yeast (lots of it) and some dead yeast and trube. The beer was transferred to bottles or a keg. Your just reusing the old yeast again to save money and cleaning a bucket? You don't have to do it?
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

http://cheesestradamus.com/ Brewers challenge!
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #11 made 12 years ago
by BrewBagMan
BobBrews wrote: When you drain out the beer you simply dump your (room temperature) freshly brewed wort into the (newly vacated) bucket. The yeast will be more than enough to start quickly and the old dead yeast and (Gunk) won't harm your new wort! Happily bubbling away in 6? hours!
I love the sound of this. Apologies for the noob question but would you only do this with similar styles of beer. Wouldn't the old cake impart flavors into the new batch? Would this be why some people prefer to 'wash' their yeast? Do you do this often Bob?

Cheers
Last edited by BrewBagMan on 25 Jan 2013, 05:00, edited 2 times in total.

Post #13 made 12 years ago
by Squared
BrewBagMan wrote:
BobBrews wrote: When you drain out the beer you simply dump your (room temperature) freshly brewed wort into the (newly vacated) bucket. The yeast will be more than enough to start quickly and the old dead yeast and (Gunk) won't harm your new wort! Happily bubbling away in 6? hours!
I love the sound of this. Apologies for the noob question but would you only do this with similar styles of beer. Wouldn't the old cake impart flavors into the new batch? Would this be why some people prefer to 'wash' their yeast? Do you do this often Bob?

Cheers
I've had good success pitching onto week old yeast cakes but I've also tried washing too.

I felt that washing gave less trub and dead yeast than the old cakes did but was more work too. Plus you need to be careful not to contaminate etc. I washed a good size beverage pitcher full and the fermantation was awesome.

Just don't leave the beer (old and new) on the cake too long. I had one experience of mild autolysis because I left the beer on for over two weeks and I almost ruined it. Although my friends didn't notice until I pointed it out...that time I was lucky.

So now I only leave beer on "old" cakes up until the fermentation is done then I immediatly transfer to a keg to conditiom then either natural carb or force depending on abv and style. My robust stouts/porters usually benefit from natural carbing I find....the excess settling yeast isn't a problem when I carb only 1-2 pints are cloudy.
Last edited by Squared on 25 Jan 2013, 09:12, edited 2 times in total.

Post #15 made 12 years ago
by mally
Washing yeast is a PITA, but i do it for a couple of reasons.

it will save a small amount of cash on buying fresh (not really worth it if purely done for fiscal reasons).
It will survive a little longer/better than a yeast cake will (if uncontaminated & refrigerated).
If done correctly will have less/no lag compared to pitching fresh yeast (this is the main reason i do it).

The added benefit as well is that you can look like a science nerd with a fridge full of beige goop!

an interesting topic here. The HBT link i posted in #6 is quite a good read too.
Last edited by mally on 25 Jan 2013, 16:32, edited 2 times in total.
G B
I spent lots of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I squandered
I've stopped drinking, but only when I'm asleep
I ONCE gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Great Britain

Post #16 made 12 years ago
by BrewBagMan
Thanks Mally, glad i read that thread. Don't think I'll be rushing into this just yet. I do like the idea of reusing yeast, although not sure I can be bothered with the hassle of washing.

Post #17 made 12 years ago
by BobBrews
BrewBagMan,

The question has been adequately answered by others. The reason's I do it is three fold. 1. I am a cheap bastard. 2. Quicker fermentation start lowers the probability that a bad yeast will take over a ferment. 3. I don't have to clean a bucket because I am lazy!

you can either re-brew a favorite beer and reuse the yeast-cake or brew in specific order. Start with a light tasting beer and then brew a fuller tasting beer. Lastly brew a dark beer. The taste's can travel between beers so you have to think about the order of brewing them. the fun in brewing for me is that each beer is slightly different anyway so "No Worries".
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

http://cheesestradamus.com/ Brewers challenge!
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Post #18 made 12 years ago
by thughes
Re: reusing yeast without the hassle of washing.

I found a thread on HBT a while back and have adopted the poster's method (can't find the thread now). Basically, what he does is:

-purchase a new package of liquid yeast
-make a starter with the new yeast but make it 500ml larger than he needs
-after the starter is ready, he swirls it up and pours of the 500ml to save for next time before pitching the remainder
-each time he uses the yeast in the future he simply uses that saved 500ml to make a starter (again, 500ml more than he needs to pich), saves 500ml and pitches

That way, the yeast that he is building starters from is not "used" and have never actually been pitched in a full sized batch of wort. Brilliant!
WWBBD?
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Post #19 made 12 years ago
by BobBrews
It's like a sourdough bread starter? It sure makes sense to me. The 49ers used to keep a bag of a starter dough hanging around their necks to keep it warm. They would smell like yeast. That's why they were called sourdoughs?
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

http://cheesestradamus.com/ Brewers challenge!
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #22 made 12 years ago
by BrewBagMan
Bob, I like the cut of your jib! How do you ever manage to keep so grounded when all those around you seem to be getting caught up in the finest of detail. I salute you Sir :salute:
thughes wrote:
-purchase a new package of liquid yeast
-make a starter with the new yeast but make it 500ml larger than he needs
-after the starter is ready, he swirls it up and pours of the 500ml to save for next time before pitching the remainder
-each time he uses the yeast in the future he simply uses that saved 500ml to make a starter (again, 500ml more than he needs to pich), saves 500ml and pitches

That way, the yeast that he is building starters from is not "used" and have never actually been pitched in a full sized batch of wort. Brilliant!
Ok, so i have an un-smacked pack of West Yorkshire's finest sitting in the fridge. When you say make a starter to 500ml larger than i need do I "simply"

1. activate the smackpack and wait for it to get jiggy
2. pour the 125ml of yeast into a sanitised jug
3. add 500ml of cooled boiled water to the yeast and stir
4. add sugar?? How Much?
5. then pitch 125ml saving the remaining 500ml?

am i missing anything?

p.s. apologies to Lee1 for hijacking this thread :whistle:
Last edited by BrewBagMan on 26 Jan 2013, 06:52, edited 2 times in total.

Post #24 made 12 years ago
by thughes
BrewBagMan wrote: Ok, so i have an un-smacked pack of West Yorkshire's finest sitting in the fridge. When you say make a starter to 500ml larger than i need do I "simply"

1. activate the smackpack and wait for it to get jiggy
2. pour the 125ml of yeast into a sanitised jug
3. add 500ml of cooled boiled water to the yeast and stir
4. add sugar?? How Much?
5. then pitch 125ml saving the remaining 500ml?

am i missing anything?

p.s. apologies to Lee1 for hijacking this thread :whistle:
The standard recommendation is to make a 1 liter starter whenever you are using liquid yeast, so......

My method:

I bring 1 cup of dried malt extract and one liter of water to a boil for @ 10 minutes. Cool it in an ice bath in the sink, dump it into a large jar or flask, and then add top-off water to bring the gravity down to @ 1.030-1.040 (this should give you @ 1.5 liters total). You can activate the smackpack and wait for it to swell or simply smack it and pour it right away into this starter, then shake it up to aerate it. Then place on a stirplate or just give it a swirl everytime you walk by it, put it where it will stay @ 70F. After a day or 2 when it completes fermenting, swirl it up to get all the yeast in suspension, pour 500ml into a sanitizd jar and the remainder into your wort. Keep the 500ml jar in the fridge and use it to repeat the process described above for your next brew. (It will keep in the fridge for months)

---Todd
Last edited by thughes on 26 Jan 2013, 08:10, edited 3 times in total.
WWBBD?
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