Is this my Yeast?

Herm_brews said:
I did not build a starter, just pitched swirled rinsed slurry straight into the fermenters, then crossed my fingers, tossed a pinch of salt over my shoulder, rubbed the lucky rabbit’s foot, did a magic dance ......... and waited. The slightest bit of activity was evident after 6 hours. Then this morning it was bubbling away.
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Necessity is the mother of all inventions bet your glad you gave it a go herm? As long as everything is clean and sanitary it's not that hard really;).
 
I've done slurry a few times and it's worked fine. I normally harvest off a starter but I have forgotten once or twice when pitching.
 
I don't recommend washing/rinsing harvested yeast. Swirl it up with the bit of beer remaining in the fermenter, dump it into a sanitized jar and stick it in the fridge. Yeast stores much better under beer than under water, and you'll have less steps which translates into fewer possible exposures to contaminants. I shoot for about a 50/50 mix of yeast cake/beer in a 12 ounce jar. Plenty of yeast for beers up to about 1.070 if used within a few days.
 
Since I dump the entire contents of the kettle into my fermenters, at bottling time I have a lot of “material” in my slurry. As such, does it not make sense to rinse in an effort to have “cleaner” yeast slurry for future pitching?
 
Trialben said:
Necessity is the mother of all inventions bet your glad you gave it a go herm? As long as everything is clean and sanitary it's not that hard really;).
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Yes Ben, glad I tried this. I am looking forward to the resultant beer. Harvesting yeast just might become my new thing. Clean and sanitary is the way I try to brew.
 
Herm_brews said:
Since I dump the entire contents of the kettle into my fermenters, at bottling time I have a lot of “material” in my slurry. As such, does it not make sense to rinse in an effort to have “cleaner” yeast slurry for future pitching?
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It makes sense, but it's balancing reducing flavours from your previous batch in your next batch against having healthier yeast that will give you a quicker fermentation. If the batch you harvested didn't have large hop additions or roasted/smoked malts the chances of tasting it are fairly low, so it may not be worth the downsides of washing.

The really clean way is to create a starter. I brew similar sizes to you so generally don't need starters, but we can create a starter that has twice as much yeast as we need and then harvest from the starter instead of the beer. Then you keep doing something similar for subsequent batches.

And with smaller batches you can shortcut your starter once you've got your first one made, by grabbing around 500mL of wort, cooling that down, adding your stored yeast and giving it around four hours to wake up before adding it to the rest of the wort.
 
Good ideas, providing food for thought. I was quite apprehensive about using harvested yeast, but watching my fermenters charge the way they are today is inspiring. I want to keep returning to this thread for future brews
 
I read a sciency paper on yeast storage where they laid it out for you yeast stored under beer vs water of course i don't have a link for it here:confused:.
But for long term yeast storage beer is a perfect medium for yeast sorta make sense.
I'm sure @Yooper pitches Slurry correct me if I'm wrong.

I do a bit of everything slurry if I'm in a hurry
Propogated off starter if I'm Planning.
But I never rinse yeast I've done it but once.
Now "top Cropping" is what I'm gunna have a crack at next Kviek brew and will try drying in the oven.
 
Trialben said:
I read a sciency paper on yeast storage where they laid it out for you yeast stored under beer vs water of course i don't have a link for it here:confused:.
But for long term yeast storage beer is a perfect medium for yeast sorta make sense.
I'm sure @Yooper pitches Slurry correct me if I'm wrong.

I do a bit of everything slurry if I'm in a hurry
Propogated off starter if I'm Planning.
But I never rinse yeast I've done it but once.
Now "top Cropping" is what I'm gunna have a crack at next Kviek brew and will try drying in the oven.
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Curious to see how the oven dried yeast works out Ben, keep us in the loop.
 
Herm_brews said:
Since I dump the entire contents of the kettle into my fermenters, at bottling time I have a lot of “material” in my slurry. As such, does it not make sense to rinse in an effort to have “cleaner” yeast slurry for future pitching?
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I'm guessing the general consensus would be yes. That said, I'm like you and everything goes into my fermenter and I've pitched slurries from all types of beers into other types of beers and never noticed any difference. I've saved slurries from stouts and highly hopped beers and the outcome has been great. That's not to say you or maybe others wouldn't be able to notice, but I'm a beer drinker who just enjoys drinking beer without trying to analyze everything and searching for flaws. That's the great thing about this hobby. You can do it your way and if it works and is pleasing to you then why not. What my be completely unorthadox for one, may be completely acceptable to another.
 
thunderwagn said:
I'm guessing the general consensus would be yes. That said, I'm like you and everything goes into my fermenter and I've pitched slurries from all types of beers into other types of beers and never noticed any difference. I've saved slurries from stouts and highly hopped beers and the outcome has been great. That's not to say you or maybe others wouldn't be able to notice, but I'm a beer drinker who just enjoys drinking beer without trying to analyze everything and searching for flaws. That's the great thing about this hobby. You can do it your way and if it works and is pleasing to you then why not. What my be completely unorthadox for one, may be completely acceptable to another.
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Can I get a Hell Yeah brother!
 
I have been using starters because I've been collecting yeast from the last starter (on the left side of the picture). It has so little yeast I would make another 48-hour starter and repeat. A short time ago I was gifted an old v-vessel plastic conical and on the right side of the picture is a collection from emptying the ball. That is a whole bunch of yeast!
This is probably a novice yeast question but what trouble is caused but pitching to much yeast? Should I still make a starter after it has been sitting in a refrigerator for 4-6 weeks? Earlier someone mentioned just to pitch a tablespoon. I make 5 gallon batches. What do you guys recommend?
IMG_20200513_153546.jpg
 
Chaos home brewing said:
I have been using starters because I've been collecting yeast from the last starter (on the left side of the picture). It has so little yeast I would make another 48-hour starter and repeat. A short time ago I was gifted an old v-vessel plastic conical and on the right side of the picture is a collection from emptying the ball. That is a whole bunch of yeast!
This is probably a novice yeast question but what trouble is caused but pitching to much yeast? Should I still make a starter after it has been sitting in a refrigerator for 4-6 weeks? Earlier someone mentioned just to pitch a tablespoon. I make 5 gallon batches. What do you guys recommend?View attachment 10067
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To much yeast pitched in a ale leads to reduced esters and even low attenuation in some cases. Proper pitch rate is just another thing to learn, mostly by trial and error. Generally speaking, clean yeast like the one you pictured, has about 100 billion cells per 1/10 of a cup. So a good pitch rate for a 1.050-1.060 5 gallon ale would be a 1/4 cup or so. A lager can use 1/2-3/4 cup especially when pitch below 50F.
Any yeast more than a week or two should be put through a stater. If you add too much yeast to the starter, there won’t be much yeast growth, hence you end up with a bunch of old timers trying to do all the fermentation. 1 tablespoon of yeast per 1 liter of starter is a good rule to follow.
 
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Yeah that was me @Chaos home brewing that was in reference to Kviek yeast in particular.
Follow the advice above on traditional Ale yeast. KVIEK seems to be a whole different Animal:rolleyes:.

One thing I have found with Kviek is it needs a good dose of nutrients after consecutive pitches or you end up with it stalling out or even crawling to the finish line. This is the same in general with all yeast I'd advise to add yeast nutrients too your starters to keep them in the best shape possible.
 
Herm_brews said:
Since I dump the entire contents of the kettle into my fermenters, at bottling time I have a lot of “material” in my slurry. As such, does it not make sense to rinse in an effort to have “cleaner” yeast slurry for future pitching?
Click to expand...
I've harvested and pitched slurry from heavily dry hopped iPAs that had so much hop debris that it looked like algae.(I just toss in dry hops) The last one like that was pitched into a very light colored Pale Ale and didn't seem to alter the intended appearance, bitterness, flavor or aroma.
 
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