Yeast Rinsing 101

[Ozwald]

It depends on so many different variables, there's no cut-n-dry answer. The sooner you use them, the better & the longer in storage the more gentle you'll have to be waking them back up. If you're really after long term storage, slants are a good way to go, but all in all it'd have to be a very, very special strain to be even close to worth the hassle, even if it's not commercially available. Even then I'd be more likely to brew a 1 gallon batch after a month or two of storage & repeat as necessary.

Rinsing is a great option to get more batches out of your pitch & clean ferments, but it's not meant to be a long term storage solution. It'll work for a while, but it's not always as simple as taking a sample out of the fridge, throwing it in a starter for a few days & pitching it. It's fine if that's what you're looking for, but if that's the case you can save yourself a lot of time by just buying a new vial. When I was doing some really heavy yeast work it was 20-30 hours per week for months on end & I was doing it because it was fun, not to mention the ton of stuff I learned by doing it. Personally I think that's key in the whole process; if you're just looking to save a couple bucks, it's probably not the right road to go down.

[rossiski]

Great response. I have been looking for that answer for a while now.

[ScottyB-Brewing]

WoW that is really involved, I often will just pour new wort onto a fresh yeast cake but that only seems to be good for one or two times after that I can taste the tannins and junk from the old hop matter.

But I do have some yeast that I want to keep, West Yorkshire, it snot easy to find, have to order it online, can't get it at the local Homebrew shop.

Thanks for the info [censored], you rock!

Censored for inappropriate content

[norfire0]

Will this work for a mixed culture of Brett, lacto, Pedeo.

[brewinhard]

You are probably better off simply keeping your slurry in a growler with an airlock at room temps for brett, lacto, and pedio. The culture will diverge from the original over time and you will need to decant and feed it with fresh wort every so often (every couple mos should be good). Be sure to taste the spent wort before pitching to ensure that acetobacter haven't completely taken over your culture and that it still tastes good to pitch.

[norfire0]

I throw everything in my fermenter hot break, hops, what ever is in my boil. I do 5g batches so I just dump it all in. I might change my practice of dumping...
I have 3 Brett's, lacto, Pedeo, and other bottle dregs I want to maintain. I am doing primary fermentation in 2 carboys now and want to collect and save the culture after kegging. I was going to just add water to the fermenters and transfer it into A 5000 mL Erlenmeyer. Any thoughts?

[norfire0]

I'm recovering yeast from two carboys. I siphoned the yeast cakes into a 5000ml flask. I hade about 2000 ml of yeast and I added 3000ml starter wort to flask. About 24 hours later I had visible signs of fermentation and a great smell. I siphoned all the actively fermenting liquid( yeast) into a carboy leaving old hops, hot break/ solids in the flask. I repeated adding wort/24 hours later I siphoned into my carboy.
I hope I have collected viable Brett, lacto, Pedeo ( in my carboy) from my yeast cakes. I did not add oxygen to promote bacteria growth.
It was a bit of work but I think I can now save what I have and use it as my house cultcher.
What do you guys think?

[NateBrews]

Do anyone have any guidance for estimating the bitterness carryover that you get when using rinsed yeast from a previous batch. I have been using rinsed Wyeast 2308 to make various lagers, and I did a pilsner followed by a helles but haven't gotten a good handle on how much I should adjust the recipe bitterness to account for the fact that the yeast came from a relatively bitter beer. Certainly when you taste the rinsed yeast, there is certainly some alpha acids stuck in there.

Thanks for any input.