[woody]

I boil and cool a half gallon of water then dump that onto the yeast cake.  I give it a good swirl, let it settle for a few minutes then slowly fill up a glass container (gallon jug, my starter flask, whatever) then cover that with aluminum foil to store in the fridge.   I don' t make a starter if I'm gonna use it within 2 weeks.   For longer term storage, I fill up mason jars and use those to make starters down the road

[dzlater]

I did this last night. It's been sitting in the fridge over night.
There is only a very thin layer of trub on the bottom
There is about 250 ml of yeast.
I still am not sure how much to pitch though.
The Mr malty calculator
leaving the defaults
for yeast conentration and non yeast percentage
and setting the harvest date for yesterday
tells me 74 ml if I change the date to
10/30 which was when the fermentation was done it tells me
84 ml
I figure I'll try and pitch around 80 ml
how much of the beer should I decant off the top
wouldn't the amount of liquid mixed with the yeast change
the amount I should pitcch/
or am I over thinking once again?
I am off to clean the carboy and then get my brew day going.
Thanks for all your help.

[tom]

Just use the yeast slurry, not the liquid.

Woody, do you make starters using all of the yeast slurry or a smaller amount?
Tom

[woody]

Usually a smaller amount that I store in mason jars.   If I have a big cake, I'm usually using that within a week or two (hence no starter).   I'll usually split the cake from a 5 gallon batch to use on a 10 gallon batch.   

[woody]

Dzlater-  thats some nice looking slurry!   The slurry I saved from my german pils last night doesn't look as clean-  ended up with a bit of hop trub and crap in the primary.     I"m gonna start racking off the trub before pitching when I plan on saving yeast.

[dzlater]

Dzlater-  thats some nice looking slurry!   The slurry I saved from my german pils last night doesn't look as clean-  ended up with a bit of hop trub and crap in the primary.     I"m gonna start racking off the trub before pitching when I plan on saving yeast.

Thanks
I pitched pretty much the whole jar .
I tried to measure it out but it wasn't that easy.
The ferment is chugging away.
It didn't take off like a rocket or anything.
But it has a nice big ole head on it.

[akr71]

...I don't separate the trub.  I DO, however, make sure that the original beer I made using the yeast is clean and has no off flavors... 

I was going to ask if you were saving yeast from the primary or secondary.  I'm guessing from your comment about trub, that you're saving yeast from the primary.

The few times I've saved yeast, I've just taken a sanitized mason jar and just scooped a jar full from the bottom of primary after racking to the secondary and loosely put on a sanitized lid and stored in the fridge.  Bad idea?

[a10t2]

The few times I've saved yeast, I've just taken a sanitized mason jar and just scooped a jar full from the bottom of primary after racking to the secondary and loosely put on a sanitized lid and stored in the fridge.  Bad idea?

Seems like a Good Idea™ to me. Like others have said, if you aren't going to use it within a few weeks you'll still need a starter.

[akr71]

I was figuring on a starter.  Next up is a rye ale and I'm going to re-use the yeast from my wheat, which has been in the fridge for 2 - 3 months.  Yep, starter for sure!

[pinnah]

Do you folks reuse straight yeast from say...a 1.070 beer?
Seems I was under the impression that yeast from "bigger" beers (quotes for Fred )
was somehow spent and not as viable.

Any thoughts on that?

[woody]

Haven't done it personally but I've heard of people using yeast from high 1.060s beers.  I've heard major say that he'll pitch a Cake from his bock into a dopplebock.  I'm sure he'll chime in

[bonjour]

Do you folks reuse straight yeast from say...a 1.070 beer?
Seems I was under the impression that yeast from "bigger" beers (quotes for Fred )
was somehow spent and not as viable.

Any thoughts on that?

I would have no trouble pitching from a 1.080 beer, but that's just me.  I figure I can get away with any "session" beer (see my sig for the definition) BUT I would not recommend that.  On the other hand the yeast in my 15+% beers have had it, they are done,  down the sink for them. 
Point is that you can break all the ROTs in brewing and make great beer, but those rules are there for a reason, at least most of them are. 

The purpose of a starter is to grow yeast, not make beer, and yeast do best with a 1.040 wort.  The further you get away from that the more trouble you will have. 

Fred

[blatz]

Haven't done it personally but I've heard of people using yeast from high 1.060s beers.  I've heard major say that he'll pitch a Cake from his bock into a dopplebock.  I'm sure he'll chime in

not major, but I just reused a cake from a 1.067 vienna-mai-bock on a schwartzbier - not ideal conditions (high previous gravity to lower next gravity) but the fermentation was perfect, dropping the schwartz from 1.054 to 1.014 in ~11 days, which is about as ideal as I've been able to get it.   the hydro sample was divine...

with ales, I go as high as 1.070 without problem, though I usually don't brew anything between ~1.065 and 1.090, so I guess I've never had the opportunity to repitch something off a 1.080 beer.  there is definitely some gray area with regard to this.

[woody]

Vienna Mai bock?  you might as well send me
that recipe too 

[blatz]

Vienna Mai bock?  you might as well send me
that recipe too 

here you go:

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/BlatzViennaMaiBock