is it worth harvesting?

Is it worth harvesting dry yeast such as us-o4 or 5? From a 1 gallon batch?

Thanks!

Yes.

Wasn't sure if it was worth it cause dry yeast is pretty cheap but isn't us-05 the same as one of the liquid strains? I forget witch one..

WLP-001 and something else from what I understand. Chico?

Isn't Chico derived from Sierra Nevada?

I'm not positive. It's been too long since I came across what US-05 was also known as.

But now that I'm thinking about it it seems as though Chico may have been WLP-001, but it mutated, and was saved as Chico.

Well I'm gonna do my first attempt at yeast harvesting/washing tomorrow. How do you wash by the way? I understand how to separate the yeast from trub and beer water but how do you "wash" them?

That's it. Just pour and watch for the different coloration.

I don't wash yeast anymore. It's far easier to make a larger starter and decant what you need and save the rest. Much easier.

Just separate the layers with pre boiled water, decant, store, make starter, brew, pitch?

TheCollector said:

Well I'm gonna do my first attempt at yeast harvesting/washing tomorrow. How do you wash by the way? I understand how to separate the yeast from trub and beer water but how do you "wash" them?

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'washing' is a term for using sanitized water to separate the yeast from the trub. you're 'washing' the yeast out by mixing it up in sanitized water, letting the trub settle out, pouring the yeast off of the trub, repeating.

Oh ok ok I got it then. Thanks for clarifying. I think I can do that pretty easily

I think wlp001, us-05, and wyeast 1056 are all Chico. I think.

It's worth saving it if its clean and not infected. One pack of dry yeast could yield enough to do 4 more batches, which could each yield 4 of their own. You could theoretically make 85 batches from one pack by the 3rd generation.

Even if you only made 3 batches, you save 7-8 dollars. You need to do a starter if you wait too long but i consider it worth the effort.

Do you not lose any viability of the yeast the longer you harvest.. ? ie.. Is there a point where "fresh/new" yeast must be introduced to maintain a certain strain/colony strength.. ?

If that makes any sense.. !!!!

They say that after a couple of generations (~5), your yeast has increased odds of having mutated into something less tasty or may be contaminated with microorganisms other than your original yeast strain.

I haven't used yeast for more than 3 times, so I can't tell. My guess would be that it all depends on how well you care for your yeast (tempreature, nutrients) and how clean you work, I have heard anecdotes of commercial breweries reusing yeast for 25+ batches without problems - although they're probably harvesting during high krausen from a conical, and not the trub at the end of a 3 week primary in a bucket.

Here's the yeast washing thread.

Here's the thread which says you shouldn't wash your yeast with boiled water.

Just so you have point and counterpoint.

ColeVet67 said:

Do you not lose any viability of the yeast the longer you harvest.. ? ie.. Is there a point where "fresh/new" yeast must be introduced to maintain a certain strain/colony strength.. ?

If that makes any sense.. !!!!

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There is a certain number of generations that you shouldn't go past. I forget the number, but it's quite a few. I does depend on the strain though.

ColeVet67 said:

Do you not lose any viability of the yeast the longer you harvest.. ? ie.. Is there a point where "fresh/new" yeast must be introduced to maintain a certain strain/colony strength.. ?

If that makes any sense.. !!!!

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Look at mrmalty.com to see how viability drops. I think it is something like 7% every day. HOWEVER, I know that I have cultured from bottle dregs, and who knows how old they are or what the conditions were to store them. If you do a starter, you'll ramp it back up anyway.

ColeVet67 said:

Do you not lose any viability of the yeast the longer you harvest.. ? ie.. Is there a point where "fresh/new" yeast must be introduced to maintain a certain strain/colony strength.. ?

If that makes any sense.. !!!!

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I just realized I misunderstood your question.

eric.. NO i think you answered my question perfectly.. thnx

Palmer has good instructions for yeast washing. Looks pretty simple

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Home Brew mobile app

mtnagel said:

Here's the yeast washing thread.

Here's the thread which says you shouldn't wash your yeast with boiled water.

.

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FWIW, opinions vary on this and are changing. I simply collect the yeast slurry left in the fermenter and repitch that in my next brew. Store the yeast slurry in the fridge in a sanitized jar. Very easy, cheap and effective.

wilserbrewer said:

FWIW, opinions vary on this and are changing. I simply collect the yeast slurry left in the fermenter and repitch that in my next brew. Store the yeast slurry in the fridge in a sanitized jar. Very easy, cheap and effective.

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Yes I get that and do that. But everything I've seen says that the viability drops quickly and you shouldn't use it after 2-4 weeks. So what do I do if I want to use it 2 months later?

mtnagel said:

Yes I get that and do that. But everything I've seen says that the viability drops quickly and you shouldn't use it after 2-4 weeks. So what do I do if I want to use it 2 months later?

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Use a yeast calculator to measure the percent of remaining viable yeast and make the appropriate starter from the slurry for your wort gravity.

BeerGrylls said:

Use a yeast calculator to measure the percent of remaining viable yeast and make the appropriate starter from the slurry for your wort gravity.

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I can do that, but after 53 days, MrMalty's repitching from slurry calculator drops to 10% viability and stays there until 1 year, where it drops to 1% and then stays there until the dawn of time apparently. That just doesn't seem like that would be very accurate past the 53 days.

In the "Cold Hard Truth" thread, I asked about storing yeast past a month and if I should just keep making a starter and feeding it more wort every month, but EAZ didn't respond and let me know if that's the best practice.

mtnagel said:

In the "Cold Hard Truth" thread, I asked about storing yeast past a month and if I should just keep making a starter and feeding it more wort every month, but EAZ didn't respond and let me know if that's the best practice.

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I would not keep feeding a culture every month, the more you muck about with it the greater chance of contamination. I feel the viability drops less in reality than in theory fwiw.

I would use a slurry up to a month in the fridge, after that build a starter.

Based on the past few replies here... I think shellin out $1 for a new pack of yeast for each batch.. makes more sense then just washing, harvesting, feeding, babysitting, etc... i have made cider, mead, beer and every trub sludge pile ive had.. just got dumped down the toilet. Seems simple enough for me.

wilserbrewer said:

I would not keep feeding a culture every month, the more you muck about with it the greater chance of contamination. I feel the viability drops less in reality than in theory fwiw.

I would use a slurry up to a month in the fridge, after that build a starter.

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Just finishing up White's "Yeast" and he disagrees:

Consider 14 days the maximum storage time.

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And EAZ disagrees too:

The culture can be stored in a refrigerator for up to a month without feeding (the culture should be vented); however, I would not go beyond that point without decanting the green beer and replacing it with fresh bitter wort because the culture will rapidly start to lose its viability.

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Not really sure what to believe here except I can just try it.

ColeVet67 said:

Based on the past few replies here... I think shellin out $1 for a new pack of yeast for each batch.. makes more sense then just washing, harvesting, feeding, babysitting, etc... i have made cider, mead, beer and every trub sludge pile ive had.. just got dumped down the toilet. Seems simple enough for me.

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S04/S05 local is $3 and liquid is $7.

Even at $3, that might be 15% of the cost of the batch. Sure, it's only $3 here and there, but if I can reuse yeast for 6 or 7 batches, that's like getting a free batch. I'll put in a little work for that

ColeVet67 said:

I think shellin out $1 for a new pack of yeast for each batch.. makes more sense then just washing, harvesting, feeding, babysitting, etc...

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Where can I get a pack of yeast for a $1?

I find it incredibly easy to collect a quart of slurry in a jar and pitch to another batch.

Brewing 8 gallon batches I probably get 50 gallons out of a pack of dry yeast.

To each their own!

My batch cost is as little as $9, so even the cheapest pack of US-05 at $3.49 is a sizeable percent of my cost. If I can eliminate that, I can spend more on equipment or more batches.

My local HBS sells packs of dry yeast for roughly $1-$2 a pk. Beer and wine varieties. DAN STAR notty, etc.. If i wasnt at work and actually knew where the receipts went to... id upload them here.

1 oz of hop pellets are about the same price, depending on variety, as well. So.. for me atleast.. i see it cost effective to just drive the 3 miles and pick up a pack.

additionally, i am not running one batch after another. like most of you guys here. i may go several months before i decide to run another batch.

ColeVet67 said:

My local HBS sells packs of dry yeast for roughly $1-$2 a pk. Beer and wine varieties. DAN STAR notty, etc.. If i wasnt at work and actually knew where the receipts went to... id upload them here.

1 oz of hop pellets are about the same price, depending on variety, as well. So.. for me atleast.. i see it cost effective to just drive the 3 miles and pick up a pack.

additionally, i am not running one batch after another. like most of you guys here. i may go several months before i decide to run another batch.

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I see cheap wine yeasts - I think I got a couple at 75 cents a pack recently. But Nottingham at $1-2 is pretty good. I think Cooper's and Munton's both are about $1.75 at the stores I go to.

ColeVet67 said:

My local HBS sells packs of dry yeast for roughly $1-$2 a pk. Beer and wine varieties. DAN STAR notty, etc.. If i wasnt at work and actually knew where the receipts went to... id upload them here.

1 oz of hop pellets are about the same price, depending on variety, as well. So.. for me atleast.. i see it cost effective to just drive the 3 miles and pick up a pack.

additionally, i am not running one batch after another. like most of you guys here. i may go several months before i decide to run another batch.

Click to expand...

I see cheap wine yeasts - I think I got a couple at 75 cents a pack recently. But Nottingham at $1-2 is pretty good. I think Cooper's and Munton's both are about $1.75 at the stores I go to.

S-05 is $3.75 and Notty runs about $4.50 around here. I used to wash yeast and typically had good results, even after 4-6 months in the fridge.

I've since taken up making slants (following instructions on the HBT sticky), and would highly recommend this. As with everything else in homebrew, there is a little investment in tools, but it's very easy, and I can fit about 2 dozen slants in less space than 6 mason jars of washed yeast would occupy. It frees up space in my fridge for that other stuff, what's it called....oh yeah, food.

For 1 gallon batch you only need 1/2 or 1/4 of a packet. Much easier than harvesting yeast.