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Author Topic: Repitching yeast  (Read 11629 times)

Offline Indy574

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Repitching yeast
« on: November 17, 2015, 04:04:54 pm »
How long can I wait before I repitch yeast in my wort?  I brewed on Sunday and I have zero activity on Tuesday.  There is no trub so I didn't take a gravity reading. My LBS is 45 minutes away and wondered if it could wait till the weekend?  Plus it may give it a chance to come alive, but I'm sure it's unlikely. 
A little said cause this was Lagunitas House Strain from the AHA Rally in October.

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2015, 04:19:51 pm »
No trub at all? Is the wort cloudy? How much yeast did you pitch?

Offline Indy574

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2015, 04:58:24 pm »
Wasn't cloudy. The vile they gave out was 45-50 ml.

Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2015, 06:14:26 pm »
I freak out after 24 hours of no activity, but I understand that's not entirely rational.

You'll likely have activity soon, but if you have dry yeast you might give that a go in the morning.
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Offline Indy574

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2015, 06:21:21 pm »
No dry yeast otherwise I would be pitching it. I freak out too after 24 hours. I guess I should keep some on hand in just these cases.

Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2015, 06:24:01 pm »
I keep a stack on hand for the spontaneous brewdays that never happen any more, and for emergencies.

Assuming the yeast was viable and your sanitation good, you should see activity soon.

But I'd hit the store tomorrow if you can.  I wouldn't wait until the weekend unless your willing to dump this one if it doesnt start fermenting.
It's all in the reflexes. - Jack Burton

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2015, 06:50:04 pm »
Ya kinda underpitched if no starter. If your sanitation was great you'll just have a longer lag and longer log phase. How did you aerate?

Offline Indy574

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2015, 06:54:14 pm »
I splash when transferring to the fermenter. Typically through a strainer/sieve to help and then stir vigorously.

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2015, 08:15:52 pm »
Ok it sounds like you got a small pitch of yeast that was in quiescent or dormant stage, no starter to get them woke up or multiplied, then pitched into wort that most likely was under aerated (at least for dormant yeast than need to grow). Assuming you have great sanitation, you'll have a long lag phase, long growth phase, and a good chance the beer will be under attenuated. What's the OG?

Offline majorvices

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2015, 05:43:11 am »
How long can I wait before I repitch yeast in my wort?  I brewed on Sunday and I have zero activity on Tuesday.  There is no trub so I didn't take a gravity reading. My LBS is 45 minutes away and wondered if it could wait till the weekend?  Plus it may give it a chance to come alive, but I'm sure it's unlikely. 
A little said cause this was Lagunitas House Strain from the AHA Rally in October.

Most likely you will get fermentation before the weekend. But if not it is highly probably that the batch will be compromised.

Remember that there is no more important ingredient you pyut in your beer than yeast. A yeast starter is always your best bet when using liquid yeast unless you are sure of your viability. IU will often skip a starter if I know the yeast date is very fresh and my SG is below 1.050. Aeration is also critical to yeast health, especially if the viability ios low to begin with. There are simple solutions to aeration (do a search for "mix stir"). There is no point in spending a day brewing beer if your only going to give fermentation a passing thought. Yeast is what makes the beer. The brewer only makes wort.

Offline dilluh98

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2015, 11:21:44 am »
How long can I wait before I repitch yeast in my wort?  I brewed on Sunday and I have zero activity on Tuesday.  There is no trub so I didn't take a gravity reading. My LBS is 45 minutes away and wondered if it could wait till the weekend?  Plus it may give it a chance to come alive, but I'm sure it's unlikely. 
A little said cause this was Lagunitas House Strain from the AHA Rally in October.

Most likely you will get fermentation before the weekend. But if not it is highly probably that the batch will be compromised.

Remember that there is no more important ingredient you pyut in your beer than yeast. A yeast starter is always your best bet when using liquid yeast unless you are sure of your viability. IU will often skip a starter if I know the yeast date is very fresh and my SG is below 1.050. Aeration is also critical to yeast health, especially if the viability ios low to begin with. There are simple solutions to aeration (do a search for "mix stir"). There is no point in spending a day brewing beer if your only going to give fermentation a passing thought. Yeast is what makes the beer. The brewer only makes wort.

+1 to the mix stir. That nifty little tool (which doesn't require a gas bottle and aeration stone/wand that often clogs, by the way) provides all the aeration you will likely ever need with 99% of yeast strains (assuming at least reasonable yeast health). Some people on here have come up with other clever mechanical aeration methods that seem to work well for them - ask around. I like the mix stir because I finish off my wort cooling in the fermentation chamber and thus I like to do the aeration step just prior to pitching.

As far as helping out in fermentation I've noticed this:

- Repitch of a yeast 1 week old from previous batch, no aeration, 1.055-1.060 wort: Will start to show signs of fermentation at 24 hours but doesn't really get rocking until 48 hours.

- Same as above but with aeration: Vigorous fermentation within 12-18 hours.

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2015, 11:23:55 am »
+1 to the mix stir. That nifty little tool (which doesn't require a gas bottle and aeration stone/wand that often clogs, by the way) provides all the aeration you will likely ever need with 99% of yeast strains (assuming at least reasonable yeast health). Some people on here have come up with other clever mechanical aeration methods that seem to work well for them - ask around. I like the mix stir because I finish off my wort cooling in the fermentation chamber and thus I like to do the aeration step just prior to pitching.

As far as helping out in fermentation I've noticed this:

- Repitch of a yeast 1 week old from previous batch, no aeration, 1.055-1.060 wort: Will start to show signs of fermentation at 24 hours but doesn't really get rocking until 48 hours.

- Same as above but with aeration: Vigorous fermentation within 12-18 hours.



Love the mix stir. Worth every penny.
Jon H.

Offline dilluh98

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2015, 11:42:46 am »
How long can I wait before I repitch yeast in my wort?  I brewed on Sunday and I have zero activity on Tuesday.  There is no trub so I didn't take a gravity reading. My LBS is 45 minutes away and wondered if it could wait till the weekend?  Plus it may give it a chance to come alive, but I'm sure it's unlikely. 
A little said cause this was Lagunitas House Strain from the AHA Rally in October.

Most likely you will get fermentation before the weekend. But if not it is highly probably that the batch will be compromised.

Remember that there is no more important ingredient you pyut in your beer than yeast. A yeast starter is always your best bet when using liquid yeast unless you are sure of your viability. IU will often skip a starter if I know the yeast date is very fresh and my SG is below 1.050. Aeration is also critical to yeast health, especially if the viability ios low to begin with. There are simple solutions to aeration (do a search for "mix stir"). There is no point in spending a day brewing beer if your only going to give fermentation a passing thought. Yeast is what makes the beer. The brewer only makes wort.

+1 to the mix stir. That nifty little tool (which doesn't require a gas bottle and aeration stone/wand that often clogs, by the way) provides all the aeration you will likely ever need with 99% of yeast strains (assuming at least reasonable yeast health). Some people on here have come up with other clever mechanical aeration methods that seem to work well for them - ask around. I like the mix stir because I finish off my wort cooling in the fermentation chamber and thus I like to do the aeration step just prior to pitching.

As far as helping out in fermentation I've noticed this:

- Repitch of a yeast 1 week old from previous batch, no aeration, 1.055-1.060 wort: Will start to show signs of fermentation at 24 hours but doesn't really get rocking until 48 hours.

- Same as above but with aeration: Vigorous fermentation within 12-18 hours.

The above is for situations where I'm serial repitching yeast within a week and have a good amount of a yeast cake to work with. My caveat to this is if you're pitching yeast at high krausen. I've used Mark's "shaken not stirred" method many times now and I've done it with moderate gravity beers both aerating and not aerating the wort. Either way I get good fermentation going in 18 hours or less, i.e., aeration of wort seems to be less of an issue in this case. Mark can comment more on this but I think the O2 demands are lessened (at least for moderate gravity beers) when pitching yeast at high krausen.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 11:44:24 am by dilluh98 »

Offline Indy574

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2015, 03:56:42 pm »
1.053 OG. I have looked at those stirring wands before. Maybe I will have to give one a try. Got home from the LBS tonight and it has started to fermenter. Go figure.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 04:03:28 pm by Indy574 »

Offline jackmarshall77

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Re: Repitching yeast
« Reply #14 on: November 18, 2015, 10:56:03 pm »
At this point I usually rush to the supermarket because it's open after work and buy a kit to steal the dry yeast from. I then use the tin from the kit up later

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