Repitching Yeast

[Mars Colonist]

Ive got Yeast by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White, and it explains a lot about the world of beer yeast and a lab setup for culturing/checking/counts/etc... In the world of commercial beer making, a portion of the yeast is pushed from fermenter to fermenter; the process is generally on a weekly schedule. The brewers yeast rarely go to their full EToH tolerance. On a homebrew level, yeast can be washed (with either acid or sterile water) of trub (protein/hops/dead yeast) and often reused.

How does this work on a commercial wine/mead level?

• 1) Do people reuse the wine yeast?
• 2) Is the max out on EToH stressing out the yeast too much to reuse (if trying for sur lie, this is obvious)?
• 3) Is the time between batches too long to not worry about the cost of maintaining yeast health (this seems obvious with season dependent fresh grape wineries)?
• 4) Is the dry yeast/GoFerm cheap enough that it isnt worth the time/effort?

 

[Braxton]

Almost no wineries or commercial mead makers reuse yeast (only exception I can think of is this one: http://www.examiner.com/beer-in-national/maine-mead-works-offers-uniquely-made-honey-mead ). Usually the high alcohol content stresses and mutates the yeast colony, and repitching can give unsatisfactory results. Some people on here have tried it and if you search around a bit you'll find their posts and experiences.

Repitching yeast from a hydromel is not unreasonable, due to the lower alcohol level and yeast stress. General consensus among people on this forum seems to be that reusing yeast is not worth it, but go ahead and try if you'd like.

 

[Mars Colonist]

It is as I expected.. this is why big breweries typically dont repitch after huge beers.. the yeast are just too hungover! The Maine meadery method looks quite interesting...