Brulosopher's Yeast Harvesting: Testimony

Some time ago Brulosopher posted a thread (which has since been replaced by an article - link below) about an easy way to "harvest" yeast. His "novel" approach is to make a bigger starter than called for and save a small jar's worth (~500ml) of the mixture (with the yeast still in suspension). Super easy. I'm writing to (a) tell you it works and (b) show you with a picture.

I bought a pack of Wyeast British Ale II (1098) on 11/1/12. I made a large starter of about 2.3L. I planned on brewing a few batches soon with the yeast so I poured about 500ml (each) of the starter (with yeast in suspension) into two small jars. Fast forward to the pic below... I still had both jars of extra yeast from 11/1/12. I began a starter with one small jar and 2L of ~1.040 wort (DME, aerated with O2). Bang. 5 hours later I have this monster. 36 hours later I have the two jars filled with yeast (one small and one large 1L jar). Check out the size of the cake in the 1L jar compared to a quarter. That's a ton of yeast.

Bottom line: Super easy. It works. My $7 pouch of yeast has made two 6 gallon batches and I have enough left for at least three more. This is NO MORE DIFFICULT than making the starter that you probably already make.

Kudos to Brulosopher for the ideal.

Bru's article: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

Agreed... I do it all the time.

I'm telling you

I just pitched a 4th gen WLP002 and 4th gen WLP090- both took off like crazy within 8 hours. Cheers!

Brulosopher's article was exactly what I was looking for on HBT! Love it. I'm about to step up my harvested bottle conditioned yeast and make it large enough to grab some extra to store for later!

Thanks

Brulosopher said:

I'm telling you

I just pitched a 4th gen WLP002 and 4th gen WLP090- both took off like crazy within 8 hours. Cheers!

Click to expand...

Thanks for tellin me!

Bought a pack of mason jars and a flask a couple days ago, plan on doing this later this week. I noticed that a couple of beers on the docket use the same yeast (WLP002), figured this'd be good to do.

If the brown ale turns out as well as it did last time, it'll be one of the Golden Recipes, so I'll get a lot of use out of that yeast.

Brulosopher said:

I'm telling you

I just pitched a 4th gen WLP002 and 4th gen WLP090- both took off like crazy within 8 hours. Cheers!

Click to expand...

If the yeast hasn't gone under the stresses of fermentation, I would not consider that a generation. If you are making larger starter and saving the extra yeast from it, consider that the same generation..

I do this all the time. Especially with heady conan yeast. Freakin love it. Screw washing yeast. That is for the birds.. lol.

How do you properly measure the appropriate amount of yeast based on OG doing this?

cuda6pak said:

How do you properly measure the appropriate amount of yeast based on OG doing this?

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It took me a while to figure that out. I believe i do have it figured out know though.

Here is a link to a thread that explains everything you need to know about measuring the appropriate amount of yeast needed:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/guide-yeast-slurry-yeast-starter-viability-pictorial-465996/

cuda6pak said:

How do you properly measure the appropriate amount of yeast based on OG doing this?

Click to expand...

Its basically a "best guess" type scenario. You really don't know the density of the slurry unless you do a cell count with a microscope. There are a number of different theories on slurry density.

Since you really don't know what your working with it is best to underestimate the cell count in the slurry. In the link above he is estimating a cell count of 4B cells/ml, which I think is an over-estimating, even when you have nothing but slurry. Of the slurry you have nearly 50% could be dead cells. I would use the same theory of pitching based on slurry, but estimate on the low side of 1-1.5B cells/ml.

Don't forget to keep an eye on performance. I pushed two of my strains too far and ended up with less than ideal batches. So just remember to refresh your stocks every now and then.