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  • Yeast Help

    Seeking some assistance with yeast management and re-pitching. Currently we are using a 1bbl fermenter. We are expanding into 3bbl fermenters in the next few weeks. Currently we go simple with using Wyeast smack packs and 4L starters. Not the most cost effective way but simple to do and got us up and running. We realize we need to go to the next step of potentially re-using yeast and are trying to learn the best process on how to make this work. Is it worth the effort? If so what what are the steps to follow. Really loaded question I know...Any links you can provide?

  • #2
    yeast

    How many fermenters are you using, how many different beer are you brewing, and how many different strains of yeast are you using?

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    • #3
      Currently we brew many different styles of beer, but are focusing our yeast down to 3 main strains. Wyeast 1056, 1381, and their Wit strain. (we really sell a lot of wit). I understand we would want to go from lighter styles to darker styles and the same when considering low gravity and increase to a higher gravity. Really wanting to reuse the wit stain as we brew it every 7-10 days on average. Looking for the process on how to remove it from the conical, store it, and then of course pitch it. When cold crashing is there a certain temperature which would be better to not cause stress to the yeast? Do we simply store the yeast in a 5 gallon keg? Do we have to feed this yeast before pitching, and what process is best? How do we decide on how much of this yeast to repitch? is it based off weight? We don't have any lab equipment, but I am sure others have similar stories they can share. Thanks again.

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      • #4
        Collecting, Storing and Reusing Yeast

        There are tons of different ways to handle and collect yeast, but lets start with some basics if you are going to start collecting and repitching:

        Lab Equipment.
        Yes you *should* be doing yeast cell counts and viabilities at least before every pitch, we take viabilities of our yeast at harvest and at pitching, so we can get a general baseline of how long we can reasonably store the yeast before the viabilitiy gets low enough as to makie it useless.

        You'll need a Microscope, some methylene blue, and a hemacytometer, prefferably darklined to make the grid easier to see.

        Other Equipment:

        We stored our yeast in regular sankey kegs and collected through sankey coupler at first, while it worked, it took forever to collect and pitch. My recommendation (and what we do now) would be to buy or have a stainless welder convert one (or more, we have six) of your half barrels into a yeast brink with a 1.5in TC port near the bottom and a 4-6in TC port on top.

        General procedure for yeast harvest and collection is as follows:

        As soon as beer is done fermenting and D-rest has cleared, Crash tank down to 32 and let sit at 32F for at least 24 hours before collection (for us this means 48 hours after crashing tank we collect) The longer you wait, the more yeast you have potential to collect, but you also have decreasing viability from the yeast in the cone being cold and condensed, so its a balancing act. We then bring our tank up to 5PSI max using CO2 just prior to collecting OR we spund the tank up to 5psi.

        We heatkill our brinks and linesets with 170-180F Water out of our HLT, ensuring all beer/yeast contact surfaces have been pastuerized prior to collecting. We also include a valve to valve assemply and a sight glass on our collection line (1.5in TC process hose) to ensure sanitation. Once the lineset and brinks are heatkilled, we blow them down with CO2 to get rid of the water.

        Once you are ready to collect your yeast, you will want to dump any trub out of the port from which you intend to collect (most cases it is the bottom port and NOT the racking arm) Trub is heavier and not as soluble in solution as yeast so something like 80% of any trub in your tank is going to be sitting on the very bottom of the tank underneath the yeast in the cone. Once you have burped the trub out, hook up the valve end of your lineset and hook it up to brink.

        The key to yeast collection is low and slow, the faster you collect your yeast, the more beer you are likely to get in there due to a vortex of beer that will formthrough the yeast cake if you collect too fast, watering down your yeast.

        Once collection is complete we store it in our walkin cooler until we are ready to pitch, we generally try to time our collections of yeast such that they are sitting in a brink for no more than a week before repitching.

        You could try Cone-to cone pitching, which require less equipment (we used that for a bit as well) but the problem is that it is just not a precise method at our scale (we are running a 30bbl system) at a smaller scale it would probably work better. Cone to cone pitching is pretty much the same as the protocol above, but instead of collecting into a brink, you are pitching from the cone of one tank, straight into another tank for inncolutaion on your nest brew. Another drawback is that you have to keep that tank full until you are ready to pitch your yeast, whereas brinks allow you to store yeast and move tanks quicker, again, its a balancing act.

        ACID OR SANITIZING WASHES:

        A lot of breweries with no quality control will add a washing step to thier yeast, usually with acid, but i have seen some protocols out there that use Chlorine Dioxide as well. Acid washing basically involves "washing" the yeast with a strong acid just prior to pitching, roughly an hour before pitching. The point of the acid wash is to add enough acid (usually phosphoric but any acid will do) to bring the yeast slurry down to a pH of 2 for about 45 minutes to an hour prior to pitching into your tank. This helps inactivate lactic acid bacteria hanging out in your yeast slurry and generally increases the longevity of your repitch. THESE METHODS ONLY WORK TO REDUCE THE VIABILITY OF LACTIC ACID BACTERIA, THEY WILL NOT REDUCE WILD YEAST POPULATIONS.

        We dont generally wash our yeast as we have never had LAB problems, and we generally reuse our yeast up to 7-10 turns on a fermenter. Some brewers go longer, some brewers go shorter, it all comes down to how comfortable you are with your GMPs. A large regional brewery i worked at that was wholly owned by a large international brewer based here in Milwaukee, we would reuse yeast up to 20 turns on a fermenter before we got a new pitch in.

        Hope this helps!

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        • #6
          Yeast generations

          Your question of is it worth the effort - it totally is for a number of reasons. How are you pitching now? I ran some really generic calculations and it would seem that you are probably dealing in the 1 - 1.5 gallons of slurry so equipment could be fairly simple. One of the previous posts has a procedure very close to ours. If you want our specifics just message me. I will affirm the notion that counting your yeast is a very positive step in the right direction.

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          • #7
            Thank you for all this information. Definately helpful on creating a process on how to best manage this.

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