Reusing yeast

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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razzrockbolt
Steady Drinker
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Location: Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire

Reusing yeast

Post by razzrockbolt » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:04 pm

Is it feasible to reuse part of the sediment from the primary fermentation to pitch a second batch or more?

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Doingatun
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Post by Doingatun » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:06 am

DaaB wrote:Only recently on the forum we've had someone loose a batch due to reusing dried yeast. IMO it's not worth it for the sake of a quid.
Who was that Daab :oops: :roll:

Daabs comments seconded...With tears in me eye's I poured a fully matured cornie and 5 litre bottles of lovely looking foul tasting Bellhaven 80/- down the drain and out to sea.

Although I've got away with reusing dried yeast successfully a few times I Won't be doing it again.

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:20 am

DaaB wrote:Yes but if you are using dried yeasts it's not worth the risk as they ... aren't as clean/pure as liquid yeasts.
Whilst this is true, they are still apparently very clean in the packet - Fermentis claims <5 bacteria/ml when the yeast is pitched at the correct level. This might sound a lot but at that level there should be 6,000,000 viable yeast cells/ml. So there's about one bug per million yeasties.

In some ways, I think the purity advantage of liquid yeasts is overstated. Unless you're superclean then your liquid yeast starter probably has more bugs in it than a packet of dried yeast.

In both cases I think the problem comes post-packet. We don't brew in laboratory clean rooms - we brew in houses.

I agree with the bottom line though - dried yeast is cheap as chips and it isn't worth the risk to reuse it.

razzrockbolt
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Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:21 am
Location: Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire

Post by razzrockbolt » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:47 pm

Ouch i hear you - yeah I guess one failed batch would cure you of a false economy.

Rookie
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Post by Rookie » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:59 pm

In the past I've gotten several uses out of a White Labs tube by only using half or a third of the tube and building it up a couple of times in a starter.
I don't do it very often as I don't brew the same type of beer batch after batch. I may brew a best bitter this time than do a wheat beer next than a steam beer.
I'm just here for the beer.

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