I gather from the literature on the subject that yeast will acclimatise and learn to live on the food you feed it and have read some stuff on running yeast on from brew to brew to keep consistent results when you have a good recipe ...
Anybody been involved in this? :huh:
Yeast from brew to brew
Many years ago, when I was still brewing with kits, I used to buy Boots' yeast in suspension (they don't do it any more).
The price of that made me try reusing the yeast from batch to batch. It worked OK most of the time, but I had a couple of brews that had off flavours, and that put me off doing it.
Of course I now know that I should have acid washed the yeast to remove bacteria every so often, and that would have cured that problem.
The amount of effort that goes into a grain brew is so great that I don't mind paying for a reasonably expensive yeast (say £1.20) for eash brew. I'd still like to try one of the special yeast cultures that you buy though, but they cost about a fiver a go, so you'd have to reuse them to make it economical.
All the same, I think there's still a lot of other things to get right in a grain brew before you start worrying too much about the yeast; the balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness is the hardest thing to get consistently right, I find. When I can do that, I'll start thinking about experimenting with yeast cultures!
The price of that made me try reusing the yeast from batch to batch. It worked OK most of the time, but I had a couple of brews that had off flavours, and that put me off doing it.
Of course I now know that I should have acid washed the yeast to remove bacteria every so often, and that would have cured that problem.
The amount of effort that goes into a grain brew is so great that I don't mind paying for a reasonably expensive yeast (say £1.20) for eash brew. I'd still like to try one of the special yeast cultures that you buy though, but they cost about a fiver a go, so you'd have to reuse them to make it economical.
All the same, I think there's still a lot of other things to get right in a grain brew before you start worrying too much about the yeast; the balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness is the hardest thing to get consistently right, I find. When I can do that, I'll start thinking about experimenting with yeast cultures!
I think I have a good link for reusing yeast......
http://www.wyeastlab.com/cbrew/cbyewash.htm
http://www.wyeastlab.com/cbrew/cbmethod.htm
Hmm, I'm sure I had a more user-friendly link for harvesting and keeping, but I can't find it at the moment. :blink:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/cbrew/cbyewash.htm
http://www.wyeastlab.com/cbrew/cbmethod.htm
Hmm, I'm sure I had a more user-friendly link for harvesting and keeping, but I can't find it at the moment. :blink: