Does a blow off waste yeast?

[BeerisGOD]

Hi All

Had a blow off couple of days ago, seems to be still ticking along nicely, got the temp down to 19 (coopers ale).

I had a blow off with the last batch too and from what i can remember there was lots of gunk underneath the lid come bottling day.

Is this yeast or just the hops and malt (or everything) that rose to the lid during this vigorous phase?

Is it ok to scrape this stuff, which i believe is the yeast, back into the FV with a sterilized/sanitized spoon? my aim is to get the best possible FG reading and wouldnt want to think my yeast were not fully being utilized.

Cheers for any input

 

[Covrich]

No it shoudl be fine without it, your yeast grows in the early stages and you have plenty of yeast by the end (assuming you pitched enough to begin with)

Proper aeration and pitching healthy yeast and amounts are more important.

Plus escape yeast could get contaminated so it isn't worth it IMO.

 

[Brew_DD2]

I wouldn't be putting it back in. A week down the line if you're not happy with your FG you could always pitch more. I doubt you'll need it to be honest.

 

[BeerisGOD]

cheers lads. its still bubbling every min so for the fifth day that's a good sign anyway. I pitched gervin so a nice 11g sachet.
I've kept the three coopers yeasts from previous kits in the fridge. Im meaning to use them on the next batch (using two) but the gervin just seems to be frocculating so well and leaves a nice solid trub I see no reason to change it.

 

[IainM]

I'm not sure if 'waste' is the right word, because as long as there is a healthy enough population to finish fermenting without off flavours, then all is good. Blow-off does remove yeast from the fv. For my latest brew, a Black IPA, the fv was fuller than I usually do, at 25L, and I thoughtlessly used Wyeast 1272, which is a true top cropping strain, so the yeast doesn't eventually settle to the bottom like most ale yeasts, but instead collects at the top in what look like a large, thick krausen. It blew when I was away over the weekend and spilt into the trug I use for temperature control. Clearing it out, there was quite a lot of yeast in the bottom, perhaps 20-50ml of the stuff, so maybe a billion odd cells. Even in this worst-case scenario, due to the overfilled fv and choice of yeast, this is nothing compared to the number cells remaining in the krausen and in suspension.

 

[kandycorn]

My recent dabbling with blow off tubes, got me to thinking about harvesting, the yeast from the krauson. So out of a kilner jar lid I drilled two holes in the lid one for an air lock and the other for the blow off tube. Then placed two rubber grommets in the holes and 'Bob,s very much your... :)

Anyway it was at this stage I then asked myself that question, had I taken too many cells from the existing brew to make it stall out or finish too high :-? Well atm all I can say is 10 days on its still chugging away (Wyeast 1332 Northwest its supposed be a Gales of Horndean derivative) apparently that's about right for the strain.

So then I got a tip off one of the fb groups, about an article in BYO, that turns out if you run a tube out of the jar an inch from the bottom, back to the fv that's a mini Burton Union system :)

 

[Simonh82]

I think I had a beer finish early because of the amount of yeast I lost through a blow off tube. The yeast was harvested from Young's London Gold.

I had 23L of wort in a 25L fermentation vessel so not much head room. It was the first time I used a blow off and I had almost filled a 500ml bottle with thick gloopy yeast within 24 hours. I swapped the bottle for a 2L one and collected at least another liter of yeast over the next day or so.

I think losing 1.5L of yeast from the brew caused it to finish early. It got down to 1.014 and stopped. I bottled it but I think the bottling kicked the yeast back into action and I had a lot of bottles froth over when opened.

I came across an article in BYO magazine where someone also had problems with beer hitting FG due to losing yeast through a blow off.

I've since purchased a 30L fermentation vessel which gives me much more space.

 

[MyQul]

My recent dabbling with blow off tubes, got me to thinking about harvesting, the yeast from the krauson. So out of a kilner jar lid I drilled two holes in the lid one for an air lock and the other for the blow off tube. Then placed two rubber grommets in the holes and 'Bob,s very much your... :)

Anyway it was at this stage I then asked myself that question, had I taken too many cells from the existing brew to make it stall out or finish too high :-? Well atm all I can say is 10 days on its still chugging away (Wyeast 1332 Northwest its supposed be a Gales of Horndean derivative) apparently that's about right for the strain.

So then I got a tip off one of the fb groups, about an article in BYO, that turns out if you run a tube out of the jar an inch from the bottom, back to the fv that's a mini Burton Union system :)

I've got a similar krausen catching jar but my yeasts never blow off enough to actually catch any. I put this down to the fact I wash my FV's with soapy water and residual surficants left in the FV from the washing up retard the krausen. I never get more than about 2" of krausen from even the most 'top croppy' of yeasts.

That's REALLY interesting about Wyeast 1332. Seeing as though Fullers now own gales I assume Fullers use there own yeast strain rather than the Gales one for the Gales beers.

Edit. Just looked at the MrMalty yeast chart and it confirms what you say;
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm#Wyeast
1332 Northwest ale Hales Brewery in Seattle via Gales Brewery UK
Edit#2 The temp range looks quite large too, up to 24C. Might be a good warm weather English strain. Theres a couple of Gales recipe's in BYOBRA. I've done the Butser Bitter which was nice but having the actual (or as close as I can get hold of) strain would make the beers those BYOBRA beers even better. WY1332 might be joining my litle yeast collection. Thanks for the heads up :thumb:

 

[kandycorn]

I've got a similar krausen catching jar but my yeasts never blow off enough to actually catch any. I put this down to the fact I wash my FV's with soapy water and residual surficants left in the FV from the washing up retard the krausen. I never get more than about 2" of krausen from even the most 'top croppy' of yeasts.

That's REALLY interesting about Wyeast 1332. Seeing as though Fullers now own gales I assume Fullers use there own yeast strain rather than the Gales one for the Gales beers.

Edit. Just looked at the MrMalty yeast chart and it confirms what you say;
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm#Wyeast
1332 Northwest ale Hales Brewery in Seattle via Gales Brewery UK
Edit#2 The temp range looks quite large too, up to 24C. Might be a good warm weather English strain. Theres a couple of Gales recipe's in BYOBRA. I've done the Butser Bitter which was nice but having the actual (or as close as I can get hold of) strain would make the beers those BYOBRA beers even better. WY1332 might be joining my litle yeast collection. Thanks for the heads up :thumb:

I had a bottle of Gales HSB a couple years back and I felt it was brewed with Fullers yeast. I would also hazard a guess that the powers that be at Fullers would have said with blood red crosses in both hands :twisted: 'no way is that yeast coming through our brewery gates'. You cant blame them Fullers has a distinct yeast of its own, any cross contamination would be a nightmare for them.


TBH the last time I had a pint of Gales HSB must have been 85-86 , and thirty years on I still remember that distinct flavour, if there is even a hint of it in 1332 I believe I will spot it.:)


There is also a bit of a story behind how Wyeast happened to get their mitts on it, or rather a strain of it. Apparently an American was working at the brewer when it closed in 2002 or 03, now some say he was given, and some say he acquired the strain, and took it back to the States where he went to work for Hales. :smile: Now if the latter be true (and I don't like tea leafs) then the bloke needs a pat on the back for preserving a small bit of our brewing heritage. :thumb:

Cant wait to have a sample may unscrew the lid next week to dump some oak chips in and take a reading Its not really a clone I don't tend to do those much these days more of a 'along the lines of' or :hat:

 

[MyQul]

I had a bottle of Gales HSB a couple years back and I felt it was brewed with Fullers yeast. I would also hazard a guess that the powers that be at Fullers would have said with blood red crosses in both hands :twisted: 'no way is that yeast coming through our brewery gates'. You cant blame them Fullers has a distinct yeast of its own, any cross contamination would be a nightmare for them.


TBH the last time I had a pint of Gales HSB must have been 85-86 , and thirty years on I still remember that distinct flavour, if there is even a hint of it in 1332 I believe I will spot it.:)


There is also a bit of a story behind how Wyeast happened to get their mitts on it, or rather a strain of it. Apparently an American was working at the brewer when it closed in 2002 or 03, now some say he was given, and some say he acquired the strain, and took it back to the States where he went to work for Hales. :smile: Now if the latter be true (and I don't like tea leafs) then the bloke needs a pat on the back for preserving a small bit of our brewing heritage. :thumb:

Cant wait to have a sample may unscrew the lid next week to dump some oak chips in and take a reading Its not really a clone I don't tend to do those much these days more of a 'along the lines of' or :hat:

I had a pint of Gales Seafarers ale several months ago which I very much enjoyed. Undoubtedly it would have been brewed with fullers yeast but it was delicious nontheless

 

[Robin54]

I've got a similar krausen catching jar but my yeasts never blow off enough to actually catch any. I put this down to the fact I wash my FV's with soapy water and residual surficants left in the FV from the washing up retard the krausen. I never get more than about 2" of krausen from even the most 'top croppy' of yeasts.

That's REALLY interesting about Wyeast 1332. Seeing as though Fullers now own gales I assume Fullers use there own yeast strain rather than the Gales one for the Gales beers.

Edit. Just looked at the MrMalty yeast chart and it confirms what you say;
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm#Wyeast
1332 Northwest ale Hales Brewery in Seattle via Gales Brewery UK
Edit#2 The temp range looks quite large too, up to 24C. Might be a good warm weather English strain. Theres a couple of Gales recipe's in BYOBRA. I've done the Butser Bitter which was nice but having the actual (or as close as I can get hold of) strain would make the beers those BYOBRA beers even better. WY1332 might be joining my litle yeast collection. Thanks for the heads up :thumb:

Interesting....Fullers bought up Gales years ago (I may be wrong)..I used to love Gales beers

 

[Simonh82]

That's REALLY interesting about Wyeast 1332. Seeing as though Fullers now own gales I assume Fullers use there own yeast strain rather than the Gales one for the Gales beers.

Fullers may do this but I don't think this is always the case.

Young's brewing arm was taken over by Wells and production moved to Milton Keynes. I found an article somewhere and the head brewer was saying the that the Young's yeast had adapted well to the different fermentors they used at Wells. Youngs had used Yorkshire squares but they used large conical fermentors at Wells.