5 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

Recently I got away from secondaries and now go from primary to keg & that's been working nicely. One issue that I have is the lost storage capacity of the secondaries and so I have to time things a little better. If a beer is finished in primary and I don't have an open keg my options are 1) wait, 2) send it to a secondary or 3) give the beer to the Klopeks. And I'm not giving the beer to the Klopeks. I have some wiggle room by just waiting and leaving the primary for a bit. The beer clears nicely and there shouldn't be any attenuation doubts. Eventually I would send that beer to the keg and then plan a brewday with that harvested yeast within a couple of days. But now the yeast has sat for quite a bit longer than a couple days... it could be more like 2 weeks if you count that downtime it had in the primary. I have always just harvested it, sent it to the fridge and then repitched it into the next beer. How long would you say was TOO long to do that w/o making a starter for it?

[Bklmt2000]

IMO, i'd look at a few things:

 

- if it were a month or more in primary, I'd save the yeast only if the beer looked/tasted/smelled good.  And i'd still make a starter if i intended to use that yeast again.

 

- if the primary were kept at a relatively stable/consistent temp during the main ferment, and if the above point were met, then I'd consider saving the yeast, but would still make a starter.

[Big Nake]

IMO, i'd look at a few things:
 
- if it were a month or more in primary, I'd save the yeast only if the beer looked/tasted/smelled good.  And i'd still make a starter if i intended to use that yeast again.
 
- if the primary were kept at a relatively stable/consistent temp during the main ferment, and if the above point were met, then I'd consider saving the yeast, but would still make a starter.

Oh wow, you wouldn't just repitch the slurry if you had just harvested it 2 days ago and it had been in the previous primary for say, 18 days? Or what would be your timeline between just pitching it and making a starter? Assuming 5% ale or lager and you have a lot of good looking, healthy yeast.

[Steve Urquell]

I pitched the other half of that W34/70 harvest I posted in the MJ thread into my Blue Moon clone  on Saturday. I brewed the beer it was harvested from Oct 7. No starter used and it started fine. That's about as far out as I'm comfortable direct pitching and I only did it cuz it was at ale temps(66F)

[Bklmt2000]

Oh wow, you wouldn't just repitch the slurry if you had just harvested it 2 days ago and it had been in the previous primary for say, 18 days? Or what would be your timeline between just pitching it and making a starter? Assuming 5% ale or lager and you have a lot of good looking, healthy yeast.

 

In the above scenario, I probably would re-pitch without a starter, with the caveat that it looked/smelled ok, and the beer it had just fermented looked/smelled/tasted ok.  (I've been burned in the past by repitching yeast that seemed ok at kegging/harvesting, and then have the next batch have issues).

 

But, if the yeast in question had been in the primary for a month or more, I'd be more discerning and critical in deciding whether or not to reuse it.  Not saying I wouldn't reuse it, but I'd be on the lookout for any warning signs.

 

If the temp that the yeast fermented at was on the cool side for that yeast (say, for exmaple, ~60° for WY1056), then I'd feel better about repitching it.

 

For me, i usually don't harvest and repitch on the same day; I prefer to harvest the yeast, let it sit in my lager fridge for at least day or two, and see how it looks.  If it looks like it's settling out nicely, good color, etc., then I feel better repitching it.

 

If it were to look "off", not settle out, or anything else that would alert me to a problem, then that yeast gets a sailor's death down the drain.

 

Again, just my 2 cents. 

 

And none of this is a statement about your methods; we've seen enough pics to know your methods work just fine. 

[djinkc]

I'd use slurry assuming no more than 3 weeks with beer setting on it, refrigerated and then used in a week or so.  The times I've done it in that time frame with sensory evaluation.  Usually with only 2 weeks with beer sitting on it though.  Same gravity range.  Honestly I haven't done it much lately.  In the last year or so it's been direct harvest on brew day or pitch dry yeast.

 

I did my first starter in probably a year last night.  I was a little rusty, glad I used DME instead of the minimash I want to do in the future.