Recycled yeast after commando dry hop

[Potatoes]

Hi all,

Quick question with reusing yeast- I reused the yeast from a previous beer which I dry hopped- commando style. As I pitched the yeast today ( in a stout) I noticed some hop flecks in the yeast stuff. Has anyone had issues with this before? Or is it something not to worry about? 

Thanks in adv, 

Dan 

[The Captain!!]

Gday Potatoes,

RDWHAHB. A few specks here and there won’t matter that much. If it was a LOT, for certain hops I’d worry about grassy tones but the amount you would get out of a slurry would be negligible 

Best practice would be to have that removed but honestly, don’t worry about it.

I now reuse, using the reusing from starter method (The Kelsey Method) and have now got up to 10 gens on the same yeast to no ill effect. 

Im sure your beer will turn out fine

[Potatoes]

10 hours ago, The Captain1525230099 said:

Gday Potatoes,

RDWHAHB. A few specks here and there won’t matter that much. If it was a LOT, for certain hops I’d worry about grassy tones but the amount you would get out of a slurry would be negligible 

Best practice would be to have that removed but honestly, don’t worry about it.

I now reuse, using the reusing from starter method (The Kelsey Method) and have now got up to 10 gens on the same yeast to no ill effect. 

Im sure your beer will turn out fine

Cheers, wasn’t too stressed but just had an after thought. Yeast slugde was in the fridge for 2. 5 months, so forgot about the hops until I squeezed it in. I’m getting thirsty. 

 

Dan 

[Titan]

Reusing the yeast from a starter is the way to go. Clean, viable and risk of infection is minimal.

[Potatoes]

22 minutes ago, Titan said:

Reusing the yeast from a starter is the way to go. Clean, viable and risk of infection is minimal.

But is it a lot of work? 

[Beerlust]

Don't worry about a few flecks in a heavy roasted brew like a stout. You'll struggle to notice any influences unless there is a sizeable mass.

Do that in a light malted beer & you can run into some problems though so best to rinse the yeast once or advisably at least twice to remove hop debris & as much malt derived influences as possible.

Good luck with the brew,

Lusty.

[The Captain!!]

1 hour ago, Potatoes said:

But is it a lot of work? 

Not at all in my opinion. 

Simply put, 2l boiled then cooked wort in a flask, add yeast and stir for 24 hours, let it ferment out and stir up, decant off 500ml pour the rest of the starter in your beer. Simples

[The Captain!!]

Here’s the link to the topic from Otto Von Blotto. 

[porschemad911]

12 hours ago, Potatoes said:

But is it a lot of work? 

More work than simply saving some slurry after bottling and repitching. If you were going to make a starter anyway I guess it's not a lot more work? But if not then I personally don't bother.

Cheers, 

John 

[Otto Von Blotto]

It is more work than saving a bit of slurry from the fermenter, but I find it less of a pain in terms of getting cleaner yeast than trying to rinse trub and crap out of the slurry. That was one reason I stopped reusing yeast for a while. Starters are just part of the routine for me now so it doesn't really feel like extra work.

[Potatoes]

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m a little too time poor for this and I only make a brew once a month. So I think it’s not really for me. When my situation changes in 10 years, I’ll look into it.

 

ATM I only reuse yeast when I know the next brew will work with the same yeast. In March, I’m making a Belgium blonde and in April I’m making a cider, so safale s-04 is going down the tube. 

 

Cheers, Dan

[joolbag]

4 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

It is more work than saving a bit of slurry from the fermenter, but I find it less of a pain in terms of getting cleaner yeast than trying to rinse trub and crap out of the slurry. That was one reason I stopped reusing yeast for a while. Starters are just part of the routine for me now so it doesn't really feel like extra work.

second this.  Since getting a stir plate and the flasks I have been harvesting from starter and it is super clean compared to the harvest from slurry.

 

I still do slurry harvest.  Had a Citra Saison (Belle Saison dry yeast) finish, captured most of the slurry and it should be enough to do two future saison brews.

[Otto Von Blotto]

52 minutes ago, Potatoes said:

 

 

ATM I only reuse yeast when I know the next brew will work with the same yeast. In March, I’m making a Belgium blonde and in April I’m making a cider, so safale s-04 is going down the tube. 

 

Cheers, Dan

If you take enough of the yeast cake you should be able to store it in the fridge and still have enough left after a couple of months to pitch into a fresh batch. Probably not the greatest practice though. 

I keep three strains in regular rotation, using each one once every couple of months. Difference is though that they are grown up in a starter prior to pitching into a batch, with the excess harvested to do it again next time. That schedule will probably change a bit when I have the second fermenter going but my process will remain. 

[BlackSands]

I re-use slurry often.  I scoop out about a cup full and store it in the fridge until required.  Recently I've re-used dry-hopped slurry - a few times now without issue .  It would seem the quantity involved ( around 200ml) is small enough not to cause any noticeable problems even in lighter (hoppy) beers.   I haven't however reused hopped slurry in a low-hopped beer style though so I can't comment on any impact it might have in that situation.   

[porschemad911]

3 hours ago, BlackSands said:

I haven't however reused hopped slurry in a low-hopped beer style though so I can't comment on any impact it might have in that situation.   

I have gone from very hoppy beers to lightly hopped beers and from dark beers to light beers. There's no flavour carry-over with the small amount of slurry used.

Having ultra-clean slurry to repitch just doesn't really matter in my experience. 

Cheers, 

John 

[ChristinaS1]

9 hours ago, BlackSands said:

I re-use slurry often.  I scoop out about a cup full and store it in the fridge until required.  Recently I've re-used dry-hopped slurry - a few times now without issue .  It would seem the quantity involved ( around 200ml) is small enough not to cause any noticeable problems even in lighter (hoppy) beers.   I haven't however reused hopped slurry in a low-hopped beer style though so I can't comment on any impact it might have in that situation.   

My experience mirrors BlackSands. I frequently re-pitch sloppy slurry from batches that have been dry hopped commando style, from one APA to another. Some here would consider APAs a low hopped style. It has not been an issue.

I always leave the slurry sitting in the fridge for a night. I find the hops have usually settled to the bottom of the jar by the next day. When I go to pitch the slurry, I shake up the jar, to re-suspend the yeast, but not too vigorously. If you do it right the hops tend to stick to the bottom of the jar. BTW, I always pitch the slurry cold, straight from the fridge. 

My dry hop amounts tend to run 25-30gm. I find using them commando gives a lot of bang for the buck. I am not sure how high an amount you could use before running into problems with the sloppy slurry method. BlackSands, what is the highest amount of dry hops you have used commando, without issue?....I suppose if you were dry hopping hundreds of grams, you would have no choice but to contain them in something as it just becomes impractical, nor would you want to run the risk of all those hops to suppressing your yeast.

Cheers,

Christina.

[BlackSands]

9 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

BlackSands, what is the highest amount of dry hops you have used commando, without issue?

Don't think it's ever been more than 50g.  That was certainly the DH quantity used in the most recent reused slurry.

As it happens my latest DH (50g) I've gone back to containing the hops, but I've spread the hop charge equally across three containers this time.   While I seem to consistently get better results with a free DH my main concern with 'commando'  is hop 'floaties' finding their way into my glass!    So, I'm hoping that by spreading the load this will allow better extraction overall compared to a single container where the hop pulp can become quite compacted. It would be nice if it resulted in a similar 'bang for buck' as commando.   I realise though that it's hard to quantify this way and only a proper A/B evaluation would reveal any true benefit or otherwise.