Dry Hopping and Saving Yeast
Last night I transferred my American IPA, or as I am calling it Boulder IPA because of the local hops, to secondary. I added an addition of 2 oz hops for dry hopping in secondary. The hops have been sealed off from air and light in my refrigerator since I picked them a week ago, they are starting to look a little rough and need used up soon, I think I will brew an imperial stout or a pumpkin porter tomorrow morning. The beer is doing good at this point, it has a nice IPA color to it, and smells and taste nice and hoppy. Also my gravity has come down to 1.012 which is lower than I was expecting it to be considering my mash temp mishap. Next time I am going to have a new approach to mashing.
I also decided to save the yeast slurry from the bottom of the primary to reuse in some future Ales. I stirred up the bottom slurry, and poured it into a large mason jar where it it rested for 20 minutes to let some of the crap settle out. I then poured the big one into three smaller jars 2/3 full. I put it in the fridge and let off some pressure after a couple hours although there was not much. I am not 100% sure if I want to use this yeast yet or not, I might try it on one batch in a couple weeks to see how it goes. I have respect for my yeast and do not yet have great yeast management knowledge or skills. I'd hate to ruin a batch because I was playing around with it, I'm ok with spending a few dollars to ensure quality yeast, but I guess this has worked for a lot of people and breweries. Anyone know of a good yeast management book or info source that I could check out?
*edit Let me say this to anyone referencing this post. You can absolutely reuse yeast, many commercial breweries do it for anywhere from 3-16 generations of batches. The yeast is best harvested right after terminal gravity and ideally pitched again at that time. You can store it at refrigeration temps (35-40º F) for up to two weeks but after this time it will greatly decrease in quality. Ideal is right away to 10 days from my observations.