Anyone ever pitch yeast from a past primary onto new must?

[STEEDTUCKER]

this is a technique some homebrewers use. They will leave the lees from a primary ferment and rack beer from the primary into secondary and the same day put a new batch onto the lees from the primary. its like a giant starter. Just wondering if anyone has tried it with wine.

 

[Tom]

Wine yeast is different. yeast has a tollerence level of X% of alcohol. By the time the wine goes dry most of the yeast will be dead. By adding that to new must the yeast will soon be dead.
Unlike Beer yeast, Wine yeast can be had for under 1 dollar online.

 

[STEEDTUCKER]

Wine yeast is different. yeast has a tollerence level of X% of alcohol. By the time the wine goes dry most of the yeast will be dead. By adding that to new must the yeast will soon be dead.
Unlike Beer yeast, Wine yeast can be had for under 1 dollar online.

True it is cheap.....just wondering if anyone had done it before. good point about the alcohol temperance of the yeast.

 

[Sacalait]

Sure, it works just fine as long as the lees are removed from the primary before fermentation has ceased. As Tom stated, high alcohol kills off the yeast so capture some early on.

 

[wyntheef]

I'm curious to hear if there are any benefits to this besides saving a dollar.
After spending so much money on eqipment, chemicals, additives, etc.,etc. what's another dollar?
If that's the main point of doing this, it sounds like asking for a troublesome fermentation for very little gain.

 

[Sacalait]

The gain for me was convenience rather that saving a dollar. I was ready to start a new batch and had a ready made starter.

 

[TheTooth]

I've done it with wine once.

I made a hard apple cider. After I racked that off the primary into a storage/serving keg, I racked in a must for an apple wine. It was like making a big healthy starter without the time and effort.

It worked great... the apple wine tastes like it'll be really good with some time to age. It was actually pretty good after just a few months.

 

[Bailey]

Isn't this the method suggested in making "Skeeter Pee" in another thread?

It seems to me if the yeast is taken from primary fermentation then the alcohol % should be low enough some of the yeast will be active. Otherwise fermentation wouldn't continue in the secondary of the original batch.

 

[jsavage]

I want so say I remember reading somewhere that the yeast aren't all dead, only inhibited by the high alcohol concentration. I also remember something about bringing the yeast back out of their daze with some sort of chemical treatment. Whether that's true or not I don't know.

 

[Wade E]

I have done it a few times myself to make a second run wine from grapes(mainly for making grappa but it works grewat actually. Ive had that second wine fire up in less then 1/2 an hour this way!

 

[wyntheef]

Could you have a second wine project ready to go and just put it on top of what was left after you rack off the primary from the first project and not have to add anymore yeast?
Do the few leftover but still alive yeasties make a whole new colony?
What kind of tastes would migrate to project number 2?

 

[Sacalait]

Taste migration, now that's a good question. You could be going from a banana to a cherry. Who knows you might come out with a banana split.

 

[wyntheef]

Taste migration, now that's a good question. You could be going from a banana to a cherry. Who knows you might come out with a banana split.

hahahaha I think I'm hungry.

 

[Wade E]

I should have continued my post before becase its really not a super great idea especially if your first fermentation took a long time. Your yeast will go through 2 stages while fermenting. During its first stage it is multiplying and using most of its energy towards that and that is when oxygen is really needed hence an open primary or strring it to aerate your must, this is called aerobic fermentation. After a certain point you need to shut own or slow down this process and direct thier energy towards eating up sugar mosr and concentrating on making alc with little 02, this is called anaerobic fermentation. During thos last stage towards the end when yeast runs out of food it will tend to stress out and can cause off flavors and aromas, usually from lack of nutrient otherwise it just goes dormant. So if you put new wine on a one of these yeasts that is already stressed out its possible you could put more stress on this already struggling yeast even though you may have added more nutrient, once its damaged it may never recover. With all that said, if you have a good and fast fermentation your yeast can be in such good shape through all this that adding more wine onto this very healthy yeats colony can get your wine going much faster which is always a good thing.

 

[Hoggy]

I have done this a couple of times with Apfelwein. It worked great for me. Yeast was Montrachet.