Quick-Wash Yeast

[joechianti]

Dang, John. Sounds like quite a fiasco you had there. You know the expression, if at first you don't succeed......

[joechianti]

Okay, I'm throwing in the towel, for now at least. After 15 batches, I decided to open up a new pack of yeast and start again. Using a 11.5 gm pack of Fermentis SF-33 this time. Will like to see how it compares with the Cooper's yeast over the long haul. I just couldn't bring myself to dump that other yeast, so I saved it in the fridge. If I don't find a use for it within a week or two, then I'll let it go.

[RickBeer]

I have this vision of Joe washing yeast...

[joechianti]

Well, today should be interesting. Several things going on now. I decided to see if any luck can be had with wine yeast running from batch to batch. Since there was so little sediment in the red I racked from the fermenter yesterday, especially with no hops to deal with, I just put the new batch right in there as is. Hopefully by today I'll know if it works or not.
Also decided to test out that last batch of yeast I saved in fridge 2 weeks ago when I started a new run with the S-33. I made a very small starter for it yesterday, mostly just to make sure it was still active. Today I'll use it in a new batch and see if the streak is still alive. I'll harvest the S-33 yeast from the batch I'm bottling today and keep it in fridge now. That will give me 2 running yeast colonies from different original sources, plus one can be for darker beers and one for lighter beers. I'll just update this post once I see if all this works out well or not. Two weeks is the longest I've held on to this stuff in fridge before using it again without any further refinement. I just left it in there and when I took it out I poured off the top liquid, let it and the starter wort both reach room temp, then put them together.

[Update] - Well, it appears as though the wine yeast isn't going to play along so nicely like the beer yeast did. After 24 hours, there appears to be no action at all, so when I get home from work today I'll probably just pitch some new yeast and move on with it.

As for the beer yeast, after 15 consecutive batches of successful fermentation, then sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks before adding a small starter, that hardy little colony is at it again. I pitched the starter at 6:30 last night and when I woke up at 4:30 this morning it was in full bloom. That's 10 hours, but I can't say how long it was going before I woke up. And that's all from one 5 gram packet of Coopers yeast. That colony is now my Porter and Stout yeast, and I'm looking forward to seeing not only how much longer it can remain effective, but also how much longer it can sit in fridge between uses. One time I let it sit 2 days and used it straight away. This time it sat 2 weeks then had a little starter. Maybe I'll see if it can sit a month next time and take off again with a medium starter. The other colony from the Fermentis S-33 will now become my yeast longevity experiment for lighter beers.

[Update 2] - I may have counted out the wine yeast too soon. Got home from work today to find it has started doing something. Slow and steady but not dead.

[JohnSant]

Keep it going Joe I enjoy reading about your exploits with your yeast colony's.

[joechianti]

Keep it going Joe I enjoy reading about your exploits with your yeast colony's.

Thanks, John. I do plan to keep going with it. I think we can thank my parents for this. They refused to let me have an ant farm when I was a kid.

[jimjohson]

Keep it going Joe I enjoy reading about your exploits with your yeast colony's.

Thanks, John. I do plan to keep going with it. I think we can thank my parents for this. They refused to let me have an ant farm when I was a kid.

[JohnSant]

Now that's FUNNY!