Reusing yeast

[spannerhands]

You can clean the yeast by mixing with boiled and cooled water, shaking it all up and leaving in the fridge for a while. After it's left all the nasties in the trub settle out to the bottom leaving the good yeast still in suspension in the liquid.... just pour off and repeat a few times. what you're left with is healthy and fairly clean yeast which can be made up into starters and reused whenever. Mine keeps in the fridge for months.

I'm presently making good beer with Nottingham, S04, US-05, but I'm wondering about giving liquid yeast a go. £6 a pop puts me off a bit, and making slants sounds like hard work. PureGuiness's method sounds right up my street! I wonder what other people think about this method - is this widely used?

[Dennis King]

You can clean the yeast by mixing with boiled and cooled water, shaking it all up and leaving in the fridge for a while. After it's left all the nasties in the trub settle out to the bottom leaving the good yeast still in suspension in the liquid.... just pour off and repeat a few times. what you're left with is healthy and fairly clean yeast which can be made up into starters and reused whenever. Mine keeps in the fridge for months.

I'm presently making good beer with Nottingham, S04, US-05, but I'm wondering about giving liquid yeast a go. £6 a pop puts me off a bit, and making slants sounds like hard work. PureGuiness's method sounds right up my street! I wonder what other people think about this method - is this widely used?

You can make a liquid yeast starter, spilt it at least 6 ways, some people split them more. By getting 6 brews for 1 phial it works out cheaper than dried yeast. Just need to make another starter for each brew.

[PureGuiness]

I've split liquid yeasts before and I've reclaimed and washed used yeast. Both methods work and it depends on how much time you have before the brew. I'm not very organised so find the latter fits in with my schedule a bit more. Both methods would require making up a starter a few days before pitching.

The problem I had with splitting yeast up front is that I found I had loads of bottles of yeast to store and I often struggled to use them in time. With reclaiming and washing I have one bottle to use for the next brew.

Somewhere on my blog I show how you can wash yeast. Splitting yeast is fairly similar in that you need to make sure everything is super clean and sterile before you start.

Give both a try and see which you prefer. It definitely makes liquid yeasts much better value for money.

[spannerhands]

The problem I had with splitting yeast up front is that I found I had loads of bottles of yeast to store and I often struggled to use them in time

Sorry, another noobie question - how long will split starters keep? And how are they best kept? I like the idea of this method, but I don't brew all that often.

[sllimeel]

The problem I had with splitting yeast up front is that I found I had loads of bottles of yeast to store and I often struggled to use them in time

Sorry, another noobie question - how long will split starters keep? And how are they best kept? I like the idea of this method, but I don't brew all that often.

I belive no more than six months and always make a starter!

[PureGuiness]

I usedthiswhen I first looked at splitting yeast... very useful.

The yeast will be ok for months like that but use your senses - sight, taste and smell - to be certain.

Sight: The yeast starts off creamy white but over time will go darker until it goes a grey colour. cream - light brown should be fine.

Smell: Give it a good sniff before and after creating the starter.

Taste: When you pour off the liquid from the yeast give it a quick taste to make sure it's ok.

Also when making the starter you should be able to see the viability of the yeast fairly quickly. If there is no activity after 12-24 hours then there is probably a problem with it.

The only down side to splitting the yeast is the need to plan ahead.

[spannerhands]

thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. I'll be trying a liquid yeast soon methinks!

[dave-o]

When i've finished bottling/kegging my ale, i'll give the dregs a good slosh around, fill a bottle with it and cap it. Store it anywhere you like and then open and pitch when ready.

It tends to be quite explosive when opened so i wouldn't like to keep it in something not designed for pressure - i.e. a jam jar or coffee jar.