Harvesting Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Grizzlybrew

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Apr 10, 2009
Messages
1,156
Reaction score
16
Location
Austin
Just rinsed a wyeast 1968 cake with 2 qts water, let sit 15 min, poured into 1 qt jar, let rest another 15 min and now trying to decide what to do...

The yeast drops out so quickly - there is a nice off-white creamy later of yeast on the bottom, a obvious yeast cloud above that and then murky yeast-water above that.

Should I pitch the whole thing? just the top two layers? pour off the water and pitch the bottom two? Help... the high flocculation is screwing me up!
 
IMG_5112.jpg
 
I've never been able to wash that strain. Like you said, the high flocculation is the problem. It's best to just top crop this one.
 
Grizzlybrew said:
lol. alittle too late for that one. I'm pitching something as we speak (type). woudl you just dump the whole thing?

I don't want to tell you to dump it or not. But, when I tried to wash that strain ithought it looked good so I pitched it in a new batch and didn't have activity after about 30 hours or so I pitched some new yeast and it took off pretty quickly.
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-highly-flocculant-strains-152080/index2.html#post1988105

Yes you can successfully wash Wyeast 1968: in the first washing the white yeast layer dropped out faster to the bottom than the very dark trub layer and darker beer layer so poured off the top dark trub portion.

Then for the second wash added more distilled water and re-mixed the chunky cottage cheese like white yeast into solution with a big spoon. Which then separated into the normal three layers with the middle white yeast/water layer and the darker trubish solids falling to the bottom.

Finally siphoned off the white yeast/water layer with a turkey baster into clear beer bottles and topped up with distilled water.
 
This is my house strain, and it's such an annoyance for harvesting. I just accept that I'm not going to eliminate trub completely and dump it all.

The trub always settles more slowly than the yeast. I always debate between doing the multi-transfer procedure that fiat84 outlined (and have more risk of contamination) or just letting it sit.
 

Thanks for the link. In my haste I searched only for Wyeast1968, highly-flocculating would have been better. I'm going to read through that on ein just a sec.

This is my house strain, and it's such an annoyance for harvesting. I just accept that I'm not going to eliminate trub completely and dump it all.

The trub always settles more slowly than the yeast. I always debate between doing the multi-transfer procedure that fiat84 outlined (and have more risk of contamination) or just letting it sit.

I have been experimenting with the yeast as my house strain and so far can't get the flavors from it I want (and getting some I don't!).

I ended up decanting about half of the top third and then dumping the rest. It was going from an amber to an IPA, so trub isn't that big of a deal. It sat at 66° for the first 24 hrs with very little off gassing and no krausen. Now, it's been at 68° for another 24 hrs with about 1" krausen and good fermentation.

I have a conical, but haven't used it yet. Even then, one of the latest CYBIs was on Maximus or Little Sumpin' and the brewer was talking about harvesting 1968 and what a pain it was. Actually, maybe it was Chad talking about it - about using a pump to suck the plug out.
 
I separated the trub from the yeast using a stir plate. The yeast and trub were mixed together but after a few minutes on my stir plate The true settled to the bottom! I surprised myself. Once separated I simply poured the yeast into smaller mason jars. Check out my instagram under the name- ezshomebrewin or my YouTube channel under the name- ericdante222

20130906_142544.jpg


20130906_150539.jpg
 
Back
Top