Graduating to your own all grain recipes...

[Dave Y]

If everything went well, the harvested yeast will get stronger in subsequent fermentations, supposedly as far as batches 5 or 6. @Donoroto is right, you can harvest and store the yeast culture for at least several weeks. That’s as far as I’ve taken it - about 5-6 weeks between batches.
I’m using conicals, so when I harvest it’s typically cold crashing. I use the dump valve to transfer, but if you’re using a regular kettle, you can just agitate some of the beer with the yeast, transfer to a jar of some sort & cover loosely.

Leave a layer of beer on top of the yeast from the harvesting, cover it loosely and don’t seal it. When you’re ready to use again, dump all the beer on top of the yeast. I use a sampling or transfer valve to pour a small amount of wort into the yeast, swirl it around and pitch.

 

[Zambi]

I don't harvest.
I re-use straight away.
Keg while no-chilling or cooling. Then next batch straight on top of left over trub (I've gone 24 hours in between)
But I do small batches, and mainly similar styles of beer. After 3 or 4 batches, I do a last one pouring on either apple juice or ginger concoction
(Unfortunately price of apple juice has gone through the roof)

 

[Donoroto]

How much do you use for the next batch? Iv'e seen posts saying they pour the next batch into the fermenter no cleaning or anything. Never tried either method but they do sound interesting.

I generally dump all of it in, after pouring most of the supernatant off. But a quarter of it will likely suffice. I use a quart jar, and it has about 1/4

as yeast.

 

[Chip99]

I prolly didn't start making my own recipes for 3-4 years. Until i understood better what the different grains did and how to balance them.

The biggest epiphany I think ever had in brewing is this: brew to gravity not volume.

Efficiency is a hard bitch to tame when you are getting different grains and your conditions change from brew to brew. So, do everything right and see where you land with your gravity and adjust your water to hit your target. Whatever volume you get, the beer will be right

That really makes sense. All my kit instructions show brewing to volume but I've often wondered if that wasn't reducing alcohol content or taste by watering it down. Agree with your comment. 4.5 or 5.2 gallons is no biggies but if the gravity is wrong you're not going to get it right. Great insight thank you... Chip