How long will the yeast be viable for repitching...

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Thought I would post some results. I had 300mls of an Ommegang culture in the fridge since Dec. 26th, when I kegged, and kept a pitch.

Worried a tad about viability, so I made a 1200ml starter yesterday before I brewed, to see where it would be at by pitching time.... and if not, I had some backup Belgian strains around.

After 2 hours.


After 4.5 hours.


After 5.5 hours.


It looks like there was plenty of viable yeast even after close to a month. Pitched at 430 yesterday, and was at 1.5in of krausen at 2am.... so it looked like about a 6-8 hour lag. Hope I didn't overpitch.... but its for a Golden Strong, and will use the sugar addition after fermentation slows technique, so I'll be glad to have them in thurr.

Couldn't resist pitching this yeast again, w/ 82% apparent attenuation.

[Sethela]

Glad to see things went so well for you out of the fridge, Apres. I've had best results from long term storage (a couple months in the fridge or a couple years at -80degC) when I step up my starters from 10ml increments (10ml, 100ml, 1l, 2l if needed). For as much as we all fuss over our yeast, they're actually pretty damn hardy.

[rfoushee]

It's not my intention to hijack this thread, but I've seen conflicting information concerning the proper method for harvesting yeast from the carboy. John Palmer suggests swirling the cake up in the carboy, decanting some of the slurry into a container, and then washing the yeast with boiled water.
I've heard jamil suggest just swirling the yeast in the carboy and then decanting into a container, and then on brew day, swirling the container, waiting 10 or so minutes, and then decant fluid (leaving the stuff that settles to the bottom behind).

I'm curious what method the listeners here use for harvesting yeast from previous brews and then repitching it...

[ziggy]

I either sanitize one of those quart mason jars, swirl the yeast up, and put it in there or I rack one beer off of a cake and put a new beer straight on top of it which I have just learned might be overpitching if they are the same gravity. If I put the yeast in a mason jar I leave the lid on loose and keep it in the fridge.

Reusing yeast is perfectly fine and saves money, some people will tell you otherwise.