Harvest yeast

[nopantshomebrew]

I have a coopers Australian pale ale and I use recultured coopers pale ale yeast. Can I harvest this yeast from my primary?

 

Cheers

Nopants

[Scottie]

Hey Nopants

 

Yes you can. You can do it a number of ways.

You can rinse the yeast.

You can pitch directly from the trub.

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

[ChristinaS1]

Hi Nopants. Yes. The way I do it is called the sloppy slurry method. When you siphon off your beer to your bottles / bottling bucket / secondary, leave about 2-2.5cm of beer behind in the bottom of your fermenter. Swirl up the trub in the beer and pour off about 1/4 of it into a sanitized 500ml mason jar. Stick it in the fridge until you need it. I try to use it within a day but some folks leave it for up to two weeks. On brew day just re-suspend the contents with a few shakes of the jar. No need to let it warm to room temp, just chuck it in cold. Pitching it cold actually seems to shorten the lag time....Speaking of lag time, you are looking for a lag time of 12-18 hours. Shorter than 12 hours and you probably used too much slurry, so use a little less next time. Longer than 18 hours and you probably didn't use enough; use a little more next time.

 

Collect the slurry as soon as fermentation is complete, and hydrometer readings have stabilized. Smell and taste the hydrometer sample to check if it tastes normal; never collect slurry from a batch you think may be infected. Best candidate brews for collecting slurry from are ones with OG ~1.040 and lowish IBUs, that have not been dry hopped. If you want to dry hop the donor batch, rack to secondary and dry hop in there (an extra step).

 

This method stores the yeast under green beer, which some believe to be better for the yeast than storing under water; it also makes no attempt to separate out the trub. The little bit of tub that ends up in your next brew will not affect the taste. The dead yeast in the trub are actually good for the surviving yeast as they act as nutrients. Don't fear the trub.

 

Before re-pitching slurry always smell it first to make sure it doesn't smell off / hasn't become infected.

 

They say you can repeat the re-pitching process four or five times, if you are careful about sanitation, but the risk of infection goes up with each generation. Personally I have never re-pitched more than twice. I feel this is safest as I am a kits and bits brewer, so I don't do full volume boils.

 

Good luck and cheers.

 

Christina.

[Tömmy8888]

On 8/14/2017 at 8:30 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

Hi Nopants. Yes. The way I do it is called the sloppy slurry method. When you siphon off your beer to your bottles / bottling bucket / secondary, leave about 2-2.5cm of beer behind in the bottom of your fermenter. Swirl up the trub in the beer and pour off about 1/4 of it into a sanitized 500ml mason jar. Stick it in the fridge until you need it. I try to use it within a day but some folks leave it for up to two weeks. On brew day just re-suspend the contents with a few shakes of the jar. No need to let it warm to room temp, just chuck it in cold. Pitching it cold actually seems to shorten the lag time....Speaking of lag time, you are looking for a lag time of 12-18 hours. Shorter than 12 hours and you probably used too much slurry, so use a little less next time. Longer than 18 hours and you probably didn't use enough; use a little more next time.

 

Collect the slurry as soon as fermentation is complete, and hydrometer readings have stabilized. Smell and taste the hydrometer sample to check if it tastes normal; never collect slurry from a batch you think may be infected. Best candidate brews for collecting slurry from are ones with OG ~1.040 and lowish IBUs, that have not been dry hopped. If you want to dry hop the donor batch, rack to secondary and dry hop in there (an extra step).

 

This method stores the yeast under green beer, which some believe to be better for the yeast than storing under water; it also makes no attempt to separate out the trub. The little bit of tub that ends up in your next brew will not affect the taste. The dead yeast in the trub are actually good for the surviving yeast as they act as nutrients. Don't fear the trub.

 

Before re-pitching slurry always smell it first to make sure it doesn't smell off / hasn't become infected.

 

They say you can repeat the re-pitching process four or five times, if you are careful about sanitation, but the risk of infection goes up with each generation. Personally I have never re-pitched more than twice. I feel this is safest as I am a kits and bits brewer, so I don't do full volume boils.

 

Good luck and cheers.

 

Christina.

If you are doing the same recepie for the next brew using the same hops for boil abd dry hop the re use of the yeast should be fine right ? Planning to do it for the first time for my next batch of Canadian blonde with Saaz hops and using US 05 yeast.

[The Captain!!]

Just don’t pitch into entire yeast cake. That’s a massive over pitch. Only need about a third, as is in the post from Christina. 

But yes, that should be fine

[Tömmy8888]

2 minutes ago, The Captain1525230099 said:

Just don’t pitch into entire yeast cake. That’s a massive over pitch. Only need about a third, as is in the post from Christina. 

But yes, that should be fine

Yeah yeah..... wouldnt pitch in the whole thing..... sorry if that wasnt clear..... will just harvedt a bit to the jar for the next brew in a week or so

[The Captain!!]

Spot on mate, all good. I’ve kept some sloppy slurry for a month or so before and it’s worked fine. 

Captain

[Tömmy8888]

1 minute ago, The Captain1525230099 said:

Spot on mate, all good. I’ve kept some sloppy slurry for a month or so before and it’s worked fine. 

Captain

Nice it will be my first attampt. Should be easy but i excited to learn new skill. The drop now tastes solid and i am excited for the final product. Will dry hop it tomorrow and bottle likely on Sunday ....