15 replies to this topic

[positiveContact]

Just curious. I'm not sure when to start the clock. Maybe brew day? Peak activity? Knowing exactly when it stopped is tough.

[denny]

maybe 2 months

[positiveContact]

maybe 2 months

Without a starter? That's about 2x as long as I was expecting most answers to be. When does the clock start for you?

[Merlinwerks]

I start the clock when I harvest, assuming its only been in the fermenter for 5 - 14 days. Normally, I try to pitch by the age of four weeks, but last Wed. I pitched 200ml of slurry collected on 7/9 and it is fine.

[Genesee Ted]

I’d be interested in the viability of yeast that old. When I plate and count yeast, it seems to fall off pretty quickly. Like in a week it can be down to half of what it was. I think the reason you can get away with using old yeast without a starter is just that you might just have a massive cell count to start with, so even if it’s only like 20% viable, you’ll still have enough live yeast to ferment.

[positiveContact]

So in this case I'll be brewing less than a month since the last brew day. So probably 2-3 weeks since the yeast was really active.

[djinkc]

I don't think I've ever gone more than a few days if that.  

[Gusso]

I'm going to brew in the next few days. I will try to repitch slurry (Kveik, Hornindal) from 3-4 weeks ago. If no signs of fermentation, I'll throw in a dry Voss packet. Let's see..

[positiveContact]

I'm going to brew in the next few days. I will try to repitch slurry (Kveik, Hornindal) from 3-4 weeks ago. If no signs of fermentation, I'll throw in a dry Voss packet. Let's see..

 

with that yeast it seems like it might be a whole different ball game.

[Gusso]

Too bad its cooled down some. Last time I fermented in the mid to upper 90's. Probably the 80's this time around.

[positiveContact]

I don't think I've ever gone more than a few days if that.  

 

so I'm not sure of how your primary ferms usually go but let's say you rack two weeks since brew day, harvest some sludge from the bottom of the fermentor and then brew again a week after that (3 weeks since brew day).  You'd still make a starter?

 

I was thinking most people would say something like 1-2 weeks since harvest if it was a pretty normal fermentation without an extended primary.

Edited by Mando, 30 September 2020 - 03:37 PM.

[positiveContact]

Given that I have dry yeast ready to go I may split the difference here and quickly boil and chill a small portion of my early mash runnings and see if I can get things started before I've boiled and chilled my wort.

[Merlinwerks]

I’d be interested in the viability of yeast that old. When I plate and count yeast, it seems to fall off pretty quickly. Like in a week it can be down to half of what it was. I think the reason you can get away with using old yeast without a starter is just that you might just have a massive cell count to start with, so even if it’s only like 20% viable, you’ll still have enough live yeast to ferment.

 

Sounds like a reasonable assertion. To be clear, I was being lazy, I normally pitch slurry that is < 4 weeks old and I brew nearly every week. That yeast was a 4th gen harvest so maybe it was really comfortable in my brewhouse  I usually get 3 - 4 batches per generation. This has been SOP for me for last five years. FWIW, I kegged that beer the other night and in the end it performed the same as any of the previous batches wrt lag, time to FG and attenuation.

 

So in this case I'll be brewing less than a month since the last brew day. So probably 2-3 weeks since the yeast was really active.

For me, I'd be perfectly comfortable with pitching that as long as everything was normal with the batch you harvested from.

[djinkc]

so I'm not sure of how your primary ferms usually go but let's say you rack two weeks since brew day, harvest some sludge from the bottom of the fermentor and then brew again a week after that (3 weeks since brew day).  You'd still make a starter?

 

I was thinking most people would say something like 1-2 weeks since harvest if it was a pretty normal fermentation without an extended primary.

No, I'd use it.  I just usually don't have a reason to do that.  I usually have a full fermenter on brewday, harvest yeast and keg during the the sparge and waiting for the boil.  Except for cleaning kegs I do most of the brewing chores on brewday.

[positiveContact]

No, I'd use it.  I just usually don't have a reason to do that.  I usually have a full fermenter on brewday, harvest yeast and keg during the the sparge and waiting for the boil.  Except for cleaning kegs I do most of the brewing chores on brewday.

 

life is usually too hectic for me to be able to brew that often.  I don't even usually get in more than 10 batches a year.

 

so what I did this time was collect a small amount of my early runnings and quickly boil and chill it and then pitch the yeast in that so it was able to possibly wake up during the subsequent hours while I boiled and chilled my wort.  it was fermenting in less than 12 hours and less than 24 hours it was fermenting pretty vigorously.  I suspect all will be well with this batch.

[Gusso]

Today's brew is already fermenting. Less than 5 hours since I pitched and its dropped 2 points and just starting to go. First time using Lutra.
Actually a 3 point drop now.