First time harvesting yeast

So i gathered the yeast from a 6 pack of Bell's and I am building up a stock for my next brew. My question is how much yeast I need to gather to ferment two gallons of ale at around 1.060?

Also, I'm leaving on a week long vacation tomorrow morning. Should I just throw the jar in the fridge? Or make another starter and let it ferment out all week while im gone? Thanks.

Looks like a pint jar you have there. It would probably do, but I think you would be pitching low. I'd make another starter and be ready when you get back.

For 2 gals I'd think you'd be okay pitching that, but its always hard to tell the concentration, viability, etc. of washed yeast.

If the yeast was grown up recently the viability should be in the nineties. If the starter was with DME (which doesn't have a whole lot of protein) a safe estimate is 2 billion per ml.

WoodlandBrew said:

If the yeast was grown up recently the viability should be in the nineties. If the starter was with DME (which doesn't have a whole lot of protein) a safe estimate is 2 billion per ml.

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I used some wheat DME, but I also added some yeast nutrient to the wort. Is 2 billion per ml still a safe estimate? Thanks

Yes, that is a safe estimate.

Success! I pitched the yeast I harvested into an Oberon clone that I brewed and I have a rocking fermenter right now 12 hours later. Its the first time I've actually needed a blowoff tube when I used one haha. Now another question for you guys real quick, do I need to clean out my blowoff tube if its full of krausen material? Thanks

congrats on the ferment!

cjalderman said:

Now another question for you guys real quick, do I need to clean out my blowoff tube if its full of krausen material? Thanks

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yes, you need to clean it - after fermentation has subsided and after you have replaced the tube with an air lock.

you do not need to clean out the tube while it is in active use. it is full of CO2, there is no oxygen in there. you'll be fine.

Great, thanks for the quick reply. And for those of you that are bored I uploaded a video of it bubbling away, enjoy!

[ame]http://youtu.be/tK4hxePu4t8[/ame]

cjalderman said:

My question is how much yeast I need to gather to ferment two gallons of ale at around 1.060?

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BTW, that jug in the video looks like a 1 gallon jug, not 2... do you have another jug fermenting somewhere else?

Original plan was to use this yeast to ferment two different brews but I ended up only pitching it into one

Usually I see blowoff tubes go up out of the fermenter, then down into the sanitizer solution. Yours dips down in between. Might get some liquid buildup there that could pull the hose out of the blowoff collection vessel.

cjalderman said:

Original plan was to use this yeast to ferment two different brews but I ended up only pitching it into one

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cool. you can always wash the yeast from your one gallon batch and use that for your next brew.

That's the plan right now, I'm thinking of what to use it in right now