Reusing yeast/lees

[tonyt]

I read a post by ColemanM in another thread (if I read it right) instead of pitching new you can start another kit/batch on top of the old lees from a previous primary racking. Here is the post http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f84/south-african-shiraz-cabernet-shipped-today-42873/index2.html#post514529
Has anyone done that, how well does it work? I know that LonD's Skeeter Pee recipe does that.

 

[BernardSmith]

Two things: I think you may need to be careful that you are pitching essentially only the yeast and not the lees from a previous batch unless you are not concerned about creating flavor profiles that you don't intend or have much control over (unless of course the new batch of grapes are from the same variety as the previous batch from which you have harvested the yeast.
The other point is that yeast is relatively very available and very inexpensive (unlike SOME beer or lager yeasts) and so the risks involved would seem to me to be greater than the benefits you might get from using harvested yeast. Which is to then say that if your previous batch used the naturally available yeasts and you really liked the flavor profile they produced then the benefits of harvesting might very well be far greater than the risks involved.

 

[ibglowin]

Might be OK for SP but not for an expensive kit! Why take a risk like that when a packet of yeast is only a buck or two at most.

 

[tonyt]

Might be OK for SP but not for an expensive kit! Why take a risk like that when a packet of yeast is only a buck or two at most.

That was my initial thought also but I was wondering how pervasive an act that might be in the real world.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

One problem I see crop up again and again is people getting stuck right from the start when reusing yeast, I think they shock the poor things by dumping concentrated lemon juice and sugar right on top of them, remember that at the end of primary they are pretty well spent, the need time to rejuvinate, they have toxic alchohol and metabolites weakening them. If people would be gently with reusing their yeast, or better yet innoculate a new batch from an ACTIVELY fermenting batch that would be like just using a starter instead of trying to revive spent yeasts. What is your ultimate goal? To save 1.89$ for a pack of yeast? WVMJ

 

[ColemanM]

Hey everyone ok so the purpose of reusing the yeast was because my WE GSM came with ec1118. Boring but faithful. And my WE LE Syrah/cab came with rc212. I started the GSM with the rc212 and ran to completion, then, instead of being yelled at for "forcing our kids to sleep" by Tossing them in the car and hitting the LHBS, I just mixed the LE to 23ltrs and dumped onto the lees of the last batch. Not to be cheap, just impatient to start the batch right away. A few things I took away from this was that my ferment started in 2 hours. It ran normal without the lag time, no off odors. If I needed to do this again with a low end kit, I would, but would NOT go out of my way for it. However I feel I was robbed of the extra day of lag time and extra day or two of slower ferment time on my skins. Also, these were kits not fresh grapes. If it were fresh grapes I would not reuse the yeast. Also, I believe the lees of the LE kits was greater in volume and took away from the final volume of finished product. So no benefit to reusing yeast IMHO.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[manvsvine]

Reusing lees is not something I would do.

You are just begging for h2s problems doing that .