Harvesting yeast - how to?

Hello Brew Gurus,

I have a wheat beer brewing at the moment using danstar munich yeast and I’ve been reading about yeast harvest. If it is indeed what I think it is, here are some questions I have to help me save some dollars.

1. Can I harvest the sediment from the bottom of my primary fermenting bucket? If yes, how much should I take out? Should I give it a good stir before doing so?
2. Can I keep it in the freezer and use it again in the next say 12 months?
3. The only benefit I see about harvesting yeast is to save some money but how about taste and such? Does it improve the next brew?

Thanks guys for reading and replying to this thread.

got it

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

I've been re-using my yeast for the last few batches. I'm not sure if I'm doing this 'correctly' or not, but so far it's worked out well. Here's what i've been doing:

1. brew beer
2. when I rack off the beer, i get as much as possible off, then stir it all up and dump it into a one-liter bottle.
3. I then fill up the rest of the bottle with clean (sanitary) water, shake it up, and let it set in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
4. after a few minutes there will be a cloudy liquid (yeast suspended in water) on top of some dark sediment (trub). I pour the liquid into another bottle, leaving the dark stuff behind.
5. The second bottle now contains rinsed yeast. I keep this stored in the fridge until i need it. After a couple of weeks in the fridge I either use it to make a starter or feed it some wort and let it sit for awhile.

From what I understand you can store yeast in the freezer, but it needs to be in a 10 percent (I think) glycerin solution. If you put the yeast in the freezer with just water/beer/nothing around it, the yeast will die.

Hope this helps.

never mind... :cross:

I wouldn't re-use dry yeast. You aren't saving much. Much more hassle than what it's worth. If you use liquid yeast, it is worth it to re-use.

I just reused yeast for the first time this past weekend. I have been doing a simple Canadian style brew and it has turned in to my haus ale. Anyway, I did a ten gallon batch with two different yeasts in five gallon buckets. I didn't remember what was what so I guess I will find out when they get poured. Anyway, I had eight mason jars (don't need that many), racked, swirled the trub/yeast and put it in three mason jars. Then the frig overnight. Pour off the top (beer) and the white is yeast and Voila! you will have bubbles!

ruffdeezy said:

I wouldn't re-use dry yeast. You aren't saving much. Much more hassle than what it's worth.

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Really? Wow. My LHBS sells dry Safale yeasts for $4. I've done my last 11 batches with reused S04 and US05 and have 7 more pint jars in the frig for future use and 2 batches fermenting which I will pull off 8 more pints each. So if my math is correct that will be at minimum 34*4=$136. That buys me 4 sacks of grain, a bunch of specialty grains, or pounds of hops. Seems worth it to me.

Haven't bought yeast since july, roughly 14 batches off of one smack pack and got 4 more mason jars left and only on the third generation:rockin:

wolverinebrewer said:

Really? Wow. My LHBS sells dry Safale yeasts for $4. I've done my last 11 batches with reused S04 and US05 and have 7 more pint jars in the frig for future use and 2 batches fermenting which I will pull off 8 more pints each. So if my math is correct that will be at minimum 34*4=$136. That buys me 4 sacks of grain, a bunch of specialty grains, or pounds of hops. Seems worth it to me.

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I agree. My LHBS sells Safale for about $3.75. While it's not $7 for the smack packs and vials, I still wash it because I've found washing to be pretty easy and I use US05 a lot.