"New" Yeast Harvesting Method

[MyQul]

I don't really understand this. So you've pitched your yeast, then you've harvested some yeasty wort, put it in a different container and allowed it to finish fermenting. As the yeast settles out you can then pitch this in another brew. How is this different from pitching trub from the bottom of the FV? You've simply made trub in a different vessel from the main FV - it's exactly the same stuff, just a mixture of live and dead yeast cells plus settled out sediment from the original wort. Or am I missing something?

With BIAB you usually chuck everything into the FV (well I do anyway) so bottom cropped yeast usually has a very large percentage of trub in it. With this method I noticed I got a lot less trub in with the yeast, although I did get some

When you bottom crop you put selective pressure on the cell. Your only ever harvesting the most flocculant ones so eventually you get yeast that doesn't attenuate very well. If I'm understanding things correctly, with this method your collecting all different types of cells as your collecting at the most vigous time of fermentation. So in theory you could harvest by this method, from brew to brew, indefinatley. A bit like top cropping - I think this is correct but I might ask some of the yeast nerds on home brew talk to see if it's true

 

[cheapbrew]

I say new but I've never come across this yeast harvesting method other than here

http://forum.craftbrewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9710 14th post by INDIAPALEALE

So I decided to have a go. The basic methods is; 36hrs after pitching clear a space in the krausen and harvest 500ml of wort from just below the krausen. Put it in a bottle and allow to ferment out then cap. You'll then have about 1ch-2cm of yeast in the bottm of the bottle. When it comes to using the yeast just decant of the beer (and drink) swirl the yeast into suspension with a little bit of remaining beer then pitch into a 2L starter.

Being paraniod about opening my FV too much I bought one of these 500ml oil pump/syringe thingies
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-Oi...443430?hash=item1e906343e6:g:AxgAAOSwDN1UQUBL

I tried it on a brew where I just used notty, just in case anything went wrong and I somehow lost the strain. Although you need to be careful with the pump as the yeasty wort seems to want to squirt back out again as you withdraw the hose bit from the FV. It worked really well and I ended up with about 1cm of yeast in the bottle.
I didn't bother to pitch the resultant harvested yeast into a starter though as it was only notty and I was more interested in trying the harvesting part of the method rather than the propagation part.

I'll be trying it again on my newly bottle cultured Shepard Neame strain after I pitch on monday.

It may be possible to use this method from brew to brew almost indefinately as your harvesting cells of all kinds during the most vigourous part of fermentation and not putting any selective pressure on cells like you do with say bottom cropping. It seems similar to top cropping but you dont need a massive krausen as your harvesting from just below the krausen so you should be able to use this method on any ale strain

I think this method will be particularly useful for me as I can build up a little "bottle bank" of different strains and just keep them with the rest of my bottles. Ideally you want to keep them in the fridge but I think you dont HAVE to, as all a particular strain might need to compensatefor keeping it at room temp is an extra step up

This is basically what I've been doing, I got given some yeast by the local brewery lad and he said to do this, its been working well since December, just have to release the pressure in the bottle in the fridge every few days.

I also have collected the whole trub from an ale yeast and a lager yeast and combined the two, that mix gave an interesting lager slant to a summer ale brew.

 

[MyQul]

This is basically what I've been doing, I got given some yeast by the local brewery lad and he said to do this, its been working well since December, just have to release the pressure in the bottle in the fridge every few days.

I also have collected the whole trub from an ale yeast and a lager yeast and combined the two, that mix gave an interesting lager slant to a summer ale brew.

Why do you need to release the pressure? Once the bottle of harvested yeasty wort is fermented out, it's just a bottle beer with loads of yeast in the bottom. so you shouldnt need to release pressure

 

[cheapbrew]

I was told to just harvest and bottle and keep it in the fridge, and just shake it up before use (nothing about fermenting out) and take some for the next brew, its worked great.

 

[Tony1951]

This is basically what I've been doing, I got given some yeast by the local brewery lad and he said to do this, its been working well since December, just have to release the pressure in the bottle in the fridge every few days.

I also have collected the whole trub from an ale yeast and a lager yeast and combined the two, that mix gave an interesting lager slant to a summer ale brew.

Mind how you go with that Chug. I nearly shot myself in the eye a few months back when I was playing about with cropped yeast in a 5 litre water bottle. I thought it had finished fermenting, but it was just a bit too cool, and I screwed the cap on. Then about a week later, I started unscrewing the cap and it went off like a firearm with a loud bang and the plastic cap scraped the tip of my nose and bounced around the room ricocheting off the ceiling and a wall. It was surprisingly violent and startled the wife who was not even in the same room. I was more than startled, especially since it missed my eye by about a centimetre.

The violence of the release of pressure may have been to do with the large air space in the 5 litre pep bottle. There was a lot of gas there.

 

[MyQul]

I was told to just harvest and bottle and keep it in the fridge, and just shake it up before use (nothing about fermenting out) and take some for the next brew, its worked great.

As Tony51's near darwin award shows, you might want to ferment out the harvested yeast first. The other thing you could do is just put some foil over the top of the bottle then put it in the fridge. Any C02 produced can then escape

 

[cheapbrew]

Yeah cheers but I'm not fermenting it Tony, just put in the fridge to put the yeast into suspended animation, there's not a great deal of pressure created over a few days.

 

[Tony1951]

Yeah cheers but I'm not fermenting it Tony, just put in the fridge to put the yeast into suspended animation, there's not a great deal of pressure created over a few days.

Mine was cool which is why it stopped gassing and why I stupidly screwed the lid on. It was later when I left it in a warm place that the trouble got going.

 

[HisDudeness]

Love this idea, seems to solve a lot of the issues that can come about with the other methods.

 

[Tony1951]

I'm trying it now with some US05 from my latest Ahtanum APA. The bottle is fizzing away. Not sure how much yeast it will make in the end. Early days yet. I like to shave down the costs of my brewing though so not having to tip in a £2.70 sachet suits me. (Tight or what?)

 

[MyQul]

I'm trying it now with some US05 from my latest Ahtanum APA. The bottle is fizzing away. Not sure how much yeast it will make in the end. Early days yet. I like to shave down the costs of my brewing though so not having to tip in a �£2.70 sachet suits me. (Tight or what?)

I found you get about 1-2cm of yeast in the bottle. Remember you need to make a starter with it as it's not enough just to chuck into the wort alone. But you can use your own wort for that

 

[jeg3]

This morning I also tried collecting a pitchable amount of yeast and about half a pint from the FV and I'm gonna let it settle for a couple of days then put it in the fridge. I imagine it'll be there for a month or so before I need it. I'll rouse it with a starter then and see which produces the most viable yeast the quickest.

Usually when I've top cropped I add fresh wort and let it ferment out.

The jar is already going crazy

 

[Spoon]

Righty, I've now got two half full pint bottles of yeasty wheat beer. With just a couple of mm of sediment in them, didn't dare fill them in case it went crazy, but needn't have worried the krausen is more like light bubble-bath than thick foam.

Plan is to cap one for future use and use the other to start a demijohn of Berliner Weiss after it's been kettle soured.

Transferred one into a 500ml starter of 1.040 wort (in a 1l bottle).

Then noticed a strange anomaly, there's way more sediment in the now bottled beer than there is in the 'harvested' bottles. I presume because;
a) wheat beer yeast is poor floculating so a full bottle filled after the primary has finished will precipitate more yeast than half a bottle from during fermentation.
b) the siphon draws from near the bottom of the FV, therefore gets more yeast.

I'll persevere with the starter and see if I can get a decent volume in two or three steps. If not, crack open a beer and start again from that yeast.