bottle harvesting: how long do you give it?

Hey guys.

So, I'm on my second attempt at trying to harvest some conan from a Heady Topper can. My first attempt, the can I had was a few months old, I gave it about 10 days and didn't ever see any activity, so I dumped it. This time, I'm on day 3, and there is some sediment and stuff swirling around the bottom, but no bubbles or anything up top. I added some yeast nutrient to the cooled mini starter this time as well.

I've never (besides these 2 tries) attempted to bottle harvest. I have rewashed my own yeast successfully many a time.

So anyway, how long would you give it? Should it get a krausen on it like a normal starter? Just curious.

As a fellow Heady can harvester, I have had trouble with one can of the 4 I got my hands on. I had been doing dregs into 200ml of wort in canning jars until I saw action and stepped up to larger. How much wort are you dumping the dregs into?

On my troublesome batch, it took over a week to get action. By action, I mean yeast floaties on the surface. I got them on all attempts to harvest Conan, most appeared by day 2 or 3. This particular batch was slow and I thought about dumping it a few times. I realized that a drop in our temp had stalled the activity and I put the jar of conan in my ferment chamber that was at 72 degrees. Overnight I got action on the starter and proceeded at normal as if the first week never happened. I have separated that yeast out and labeled it as a slow start just in case I find out later that it's not able to handle a full fermentation beer. That said, I have not had any problems so far with yeast from that can, so I think you can save yours. Just heat it up, keep shaking it, and be patient. You're not going to get full krausen in the first step or even the 2nd depending on how much volume you use. You should be looking for minimal signs of activity, perspiration around the neck of the vessel, make some very slight signs of dark brown krausen spots on the wort line, and little yeast floaties in the middle of the wort.

I've got a 2 blog posts on harvesting Conan that might be helpful, they're on my blog link below. Bear flavored also has a good write up on it. If you haven't already, head over to the Heady Topper clone thread too, there are a bunch of people talking about Conan over there.

Hey man.

I actually read the post on your blog prior to posting this =)
I did note the thing you said about low temps, the issue is letting my wife let me crank the heat lol.
I guess the other thing is that I used about 350ML of wort. Might be too agro for the actual yeast pitched?
I do see some swirly yeast looking clouds floating in the middle when I spin the bottle around. I guess that's a good sign.

I have a wife problem too and if I'm fermenting too cold for my yeast, I usually take my aluminum paint can heater into a closet and run it every so often to heat it up. I've been thinking about using thie flexwatt heat tape someone suggested in another thread, but will probably do it later in the year as it'll be warming up here soon. Here's the link for that stuff: http://beanfarm.com/product_info.php?cPath=1204&products_id=5569

I think you've probably had enough action on that yeast. The signs are really minimal at this early stage. If you can, heat it up a bit to 70+ for a couple days and then proceed as if you've had normal action to the next step.

i never harvested from heady topper but i did, successfully, harvest from sierra nevada pale ale. basically, i slowly poured the beer into a glass and left a little bit at the bottom of each bottle. then, i sanitized the top of the bottle by twirling it around the flame of the gas stove. after letting it cool, it then swirled the bottle around and dumped the sediment into a 1 cup starter. I did this for the entire six pack. I then shook around the starter and let it go for a few days, at which time I saw a band of yeast develop. Then, i kicked it up to a 2 cup starter and let the band develop further, again for a few days. finally, i up'ed it to a 1.5 liter starter and, after 2 days in the starter, brewed up a 5 gallon batch of sierra nevada clone and pitched in the yeast. I just transferred it to the secondary and, man, it tastes exactly like a sierra nevada and was able to harvest a ton of yeast from the carboy.

I actually just finished up with a conan harvest. I got lucky and harvested from a less than 2 week old can, which definitely helped. Used a 500ml starter with the dregs from one can + yeast nutrient in addition to a stir plate. Didn't see much activity until the second or third day, but I now have about 200ml of good looking yeast in a canning jar that I will be using for a very hoppy pale ale in two weeks. Planning on making another starter with it and saving some from the original harvest as well.

hiphops said:

i never harvested from heady topper but i did, successfully, harvest from sierra nevada pale ale. basically, i slowly poured the beer into a glass and left a little bit at the bottom of each bottle. then, i sanitized the top of the bottle by twirling it around the flame of the gas stove. after letting it cool, it then swirled the bottle around and dumped the sediment into a 1 cup starter. I did this for the entire six pack. I then shook around the starter and let it go for a few days, at which time I saw a band of yeast develop. Then, i kicked it up to a 2 cup starter and let the band develop further, again for a few days. finally, i up'ed it to a 1.5 liter starter and, after 2 days in the starter, brewed up a 5 gallon batch of sierra nevada clone and pitched in the yeast. I just transferred it to the secondary and, man, it tastes exactly like a sierra nevada and was able to harvest a ton of yeast from the carboy.

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Not to go off topic but 1056 and wlp001 are Chico yeast which is Sierra Nevadas yeast, no need to harvest it

In response to harvesting in general it is important to start really small and with a weak wort like 1.020 to start off until you actually see some growth, preferably a stir plate, then build up the strength and size as you go

Not to go off topic as well, but I don't disagree. The reason why I did it was this chick I'm totally into is really into Sierra Nevada. I thought , for the novelty factor, it would be a good valentine's day gift: the beers should be ready then. As I said before, behind every seemingly irrational male action, lies a chick he's into.

Wow.

Heat was the key man! Thanks! I realized I had a floor vent in the corner of my man cave and left it there from yesterday afternoon. I woke up this morning and it had about an inch of thick foamy lusciousness on it! nice!

hiphops said:

as i said before, behind every seemingly irrational male action, lies a chick he's into.

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+1