I just made my second stab at harvesting yeast from a primary for re-use. I'd read a number of the threads on yeast washing and followed similar procedures for my first attempt. I stored the recovered yeast for a couple weeks in the fridge and all went well when I used it in a new batch.
This time I was a bit pressed for time as well as feeling particularly lazy. I was brewing the new batch and racking the old batch to secondary the same afternoon. I had added cooled boiled water to the old yeast/trub, swirled, let it settle and drained off the liquid. I repeated that process and waited to let it settle and seperate again. In the mean time, I had completed my new batch, cooled it, put it in the primary and oxygenated. So the new brew is sitting there waiting for yeast and I'm watching the old yeast/trub/liquid separate. I use Better Bottles with the racking outlet and was fiddling with the rotating racking arm when the lightbulb came on. With the rotating racking arm, it's possible to possible to drain fluid from various levels near the bottom of the Better Bottle. It struck me that there was no reason to drain the now mostly water liquid from above the yeast or the trub from below it. I simply set the racking outlet into the yeast layer and then pressurized the bottle from the closure end through a HEPA filter to get the flow started. I was able to drain the yeast layer only into the new primary and leave all of the trub and liquid behind.
Sometimes, I really love being lazy. It makes me creative.
This time I was a bit pressed for time as well as feeling particularly lazy. I was brewing the new batch and racking the old batch to secondary the same afternoon. I had added cooled boiled water to the old yeast/trub, swirled, let it settle and drained off the liquid. I repeated that process and waited to let it settle and seperate again. In the mean time, I had completed my new batch, cooled it, put it in the primary and oxygenated. So the new brew is sitting there waiting for yeast and I'm watching the old yeast/trub/liquid separate. I use Better Bottles with the racking outlet and was fiddling with the rotating racking arm when the lightbulb came on. With the rotating racking arm, it's possible to possible to drain fluid from various levels near the bottom of the Better Bottle. It struck me that there was no reason to drain the now mostly water liquid from above the yeast or the trub from below it. I simply set the racking outlet into the yeast layer and then pressurized the bottle from the closure end through a HEPA filter to get the flow started. I was able to drain the yeast layer only into the new primary and leave all of the trub and liquid behind.
Sometimes, I really love being lazy. It makes me creative.
