How would you re-pitch this yeast?

[Stovetop535]

The yeast is Wyeast 2565 that I collected on April 8 from a wheat beer. I want to make another round of the wheat along with a Kolsch with the yeast I collected. The og of the original wheat beer was 1.050, the second round will be the same and the Kolsch will be around a 1.046 I have two of these pint sized mason jars with yeast in the fridge, I am just not sure how to pitch them.

So, how would you re-pitch it?

 

[Rambleon]

That thin white layer is the yeast. The darker stuff below it is what you don't want. decant as much of the yeast as you can without disturbing the gunk underneath it and build up a starter. Then you can either pitch the whole starter into your next beer or decant the yeast from it and pitch that.

 

[catdaddy66]

That thin white layer is the yeast. The darker stuff below it is what you don't want. decant as much of the yeast as you can without disturbing the gunk underneath it and build up a starter. Then you can either pitch the whole starter into your next beer or decant the yeast from it and pitch that.

What's the best method to accomplish that?

I was prepared to pitch it ALL in!

 

[adamdillabo]

Dead stuff falls quicker. I would decant add boiling water that you cooked to room temp. Shake if up. Wait 20 minutes. Poor off the top. The top is what you want. Make a starter with that.

 

[Stovetop535]

Sounds good. I will decant, boil some water mix it up and decant again. Would a 1 liter starter be enough for a 1.046 kolsch and a 1.050 wheat?

 

[adamdillabo]

I would say that's more than enough. But mr. Malty would know for sure

 

[eastoak]

What's the best method to accomplish that?

I was prepared to pitch it ALL in!

go ahead and pitch it all in, you have viable yeast throughout that container. the little bit of trub won't hurt a thing. washing yeast is fine but you do throw away lots of good yeast and you're adding more chances for some evil contaminant to posses your brew. i'm sure i'm not the only one who scoops up a 1/4 cup off of the bottom of my fermentor and dumps it straight into the next (compatible) batch. i've never had an unintentionally sour beer reusing yeast straight from a fermentor.

 

[Stovetop535]

go ahead and pitch it all in, you have viable yeast throughout that container. the little bit of trub won't hurt a thing. washing yeast is fine but you do throw away lots of good yeast and you're adding more chances for some evil contaminant to posses your brew. i'm sure i'm not the only one who scoops up a 1/4 cup off of the bottom of my fermentor and dumps it straight into the next (compatible) batch. i've never had an unintentionally sour beer reusing yeast straight from a fermentor.

So if I pitch the entire mason jar, should I make a starter for it or just takes it out of the fridge and pitch?

 

[eastoak]

So if I pitch the entire mason jar, should I make a starter for it or just takes it out of the fridge and pitch?

you have as much or more yeast in that jar as a regular starter. i'd get it to your wort temperature and dump it all in, or however much is needed. those yeast calculators help you calculate the amount of slurry you need for a given beer.

 

[pkrath84]

All in unless you care that the yeast is pre-hopped (shouldn't matter). I dump everything when I make starters, up to 2 liters.

 

[Stovetop535]

Just wanted to update this, I pitched the entire pint sized jar of the wyeast 2565 and a pint sized jar of s05 and both are fermenting away. The s05 had noticeable activity within 8 hours. The 2565 took closer to 24 hours, but I attribute that to the cool fermentation temp (58*). As suggested, I let both the jars warm up to room temp, shook and dumped.

It is nice not having to spend money on yeast to complete a brewday.

 

[tre9er]

Interesting. When I look at those jars I see a lot of trub. Now, there ARE yeast cells in that trub, too. Don't let anyone tell you there aren't. So if you were to just have pitched the thin white layer, you'd be severely underpitching. That's probably not even 50ML of yeast, and even at a concentration of 2b/ML you'd be underpitching most mid-gravity ales of a 5g batch. It's a good thing you pitched the whole thing.

How did you harvest this yeast? I ask because of the significant amount of speckled trub. Do you dump your entire kettle into the fermenter, or do you try to leave trub behind?

 

[sok454]

I'm looking to pull some yeast from my latest batch... but I just dumped a secondary yeast in to try and get it to the FG... it was an RIS at 1.115... Notty got it to 1.046...

 

[tre9er]

Everyone ought to try top-cropping. It's SUPER easy and clean. Peek in on your fermenter after a day or two and see if you have krausen, I'm talking the sticky kind, not frothy little bubbles. Take a sanitized slotted spoon or wonton skimmer and just skim off the yeast into a sanitized mason jar, trying to get as little liquid with it as you can. I use a much bigger mason jar than I need because of the bubbly yeast taking up so much space at first. Skim all or as much as you can, then close the jar but not tight. It's going to vent a bit in the fridge, but don't worry. The next day, chances are there is a ton more yeast on top again, repeat process in a new sanitized jar.

After a week in the fridge it should be fine to seal the jars up good. You have trub-free yeast and not just the less flocculent cells you might get with washing or harvesting the thin part of the cake.

 

[sok454]

So are you talking about the stuff that is floating on top after the krausen has receded a bit and you have a thin layer on top of the wort? Or while there is still Krausen (just pull on the very top of it?)

 

[Stovetop535]

How did you harvest this yeast? I ask because of the significant amount of speckled trub. Do you dump your entire kettle into the fermenter, or do you try to leave trub behind?

On the batches that the yeast was harvested from, I racked off the trub in the kettle. After chilling I let the kettle sit for an hour so most of the break material settled out and then I racked off the top. There was hardly any break material in the primary. Normally I just dump it all in, but I wanted to keep the yeast clean and see if it made a difference.

The yeast was collected after a 3 week primary and cold crash. I racked off the beer like normal, then added a pint of water to the primary, shook it up, and dumped the contents into 2 pint sized jars (had just a little leftover, mostly chunks of stuff which I dumped). After that the yeast sat in the jars until the other day when I pitched.

I was suprised how fast both took off. As they warmed during the day, I would crack the mason jars to relieve pressure and you could see the yeast stirring back into suspension.

 

[tre9er]

On the batches that the yeast was harvested from, I racked off the trub in the kettle. After chilling I let the kettle sit for an hour so most of the break material settled out and then I racked off the top. There was hardly any break material in the primary. Normally I just dump it all in, but I wanted to keep the yeast clean and see if it made a difference.

The yeast was collected after a 3 week primary and cold crash. I racked off the beer like normal, then added a pint of water to the primary, shook it up, and dumped the contents into 2 pint sized jars (had just a little leftover, mostly chunks of stuff which I dumped). After that the yeast sat in the jars until the other day when I pitched.

I was suprised how fast both took off. As they warmed during the day, I would crack the mason jars to relieve pressure and you could see the yeast stirring back into suspension.

That's all sound practice there. Maybe the photo just deceives, because you should have relatively clean yeast with those procedures. In which case, you had a lot of yeast pitched into your new beers, so that's good.

 

[Stovetop535]

The picture is with my phone so it is not the best. I just don't like the idea of losing the live yeast that is mixed in with the trub. Plus it is very easy and fast to just dump it all in a pint sized jar.

 

[tre9er]

The picture is with my phone so it is not the best. I just don't like the idea of losing the live yeast that is mixed in with the trub. Plus it is very easy and fast to just dump it all in a pint sized jar.

I've done it that way before, numerous times. Nothing wrong with it :cheers: