Yeast Harvesting

[Crystal_Ball]

This was my first attempt at harvesting yeast from an IPA using Vermont yeast after reading on hear and watching a few videos on youtube.

I racked the beer off into another FV to do the dry hop and left a small amount of beer on top of the yeast and what appears to be a lot of hop debris.

When I have bottled or kegged in the past not every time but on occasion I have been left with yeast cake that looks a lot more like the moon surface which appear to not have all the hop debris.

I collected about 2 and half litres in total across the 3 jars. As you will see from the images one was taking straight away and the other 48 hours after being in the fridge. I can’t see a white layer of yeast I was expecting to see. Have I got too much trub and pellet hops from boiler in with this? At the moment the only way I think it can be re-used is either to strain them before use or just chuck them straight into the FV.

Comments and advice would be greatly received. Thanks.

 

[Dutto]

Stick some of the trub into a Kilner jar, fill it up with cold water from the tap, stir it like mad and then let it settle. After a few hours you will see that the mixture settles into three levels with the liquid at the top, a light coloured layer of yeast in the middle and a dark layer of trub on the bottom.

The middle (and usually the thinnest of the three lines) is the live yeast that you wish to collect and cultivate into a yeast starter.

You can see the "thin line" in your own photographs, so now watch this video for an explanation of how to harvested yeast.



Please note that IMO, the lads fanaticism for sanitising everything IS NOT over the top!

Enjoy!

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Stick some of the trub into a Kilner jar, fill it up with cold water from the tap, stir it like mad and then let it settle. After a few hours you will see that the mixture settles into three levels with the liquid at the top, a light coloured layer of yeast in the middle and a dark layer of trub on the bottom.

The middle (and usually the thinnest of the three lines) is the live yeast that you wish to collect and cultivate into a yeast starter.

You can see the "thin line" in your own photographs, so now watch this video for an explanation of how to harvested yeast.



Please note that IMO, the lads fanaticism for sanitising everything IS NOT over the top!

Enjoy!

Thanks. So basically I’m half way through the process. Shame I only have 1 spare jar!
Usually when I make a starter I’m doing from a fresh liquid packet/vial. When it comes to making the starter from this do you think I need as much of the yeast layer as possible and as little as possible of the rest of the contents?

 

[Dutto]

I suppose that it's "better" to skim off the white layer of live yeast, but it's a real beggar to do so and you always have the chance of introducing wild yeasts.

For me, I just decant the top layer a couple of times (like the lad in the video), then pour off the tops and store the yeast in the fridge until needed. I then bring it out of the fridge the day before Brew Day (to warm up) and then chuck into the wort at the right time.

At the moment you may only have one jar but give it a few months and you will have a wide variety of spare jam-jars, Kilner jars etc. You just have to look for them!

BTW, if you are married don't expect SWMBO to think along the same lines as yourself. I discovered that the jam-jars from Lidl are absolutely perfect for keeping enough yeast in the fridge for ordinary brews so I told the lady of the house "Please don't punch any holes in the top of these jam jars. If you let me know when we need a new one I'll open it for you." (Brute strength and ignorance regularly overcomes a vacuum in this house!)

The next thing I know there is a new opened jam jar in the kitchen fridge. There's no hole in the top (as per instructions) but the lid has been battered into submission by repeated blows from (I suspect) a rolling pin. It might just seal with a bit of luck.:headbang:There's a reason some of us drink you know!