Whats the best way to harvest yeast from primary?

Ive tried to find a good method of doing this online. Are guys just siphoning it out or pouring it out in containrrs? I know it needs to be sanitary. Also once removed do you wash the yeast or wash it in the primary first? Id like to see a tutorial on this. Any links or advise?

Look at the sticky...

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

IMO the very best way is to scoop it out and pitch it into a fresh batch the same day. No rinsing and no storing. Just keep the culture going strong. I've gone 10 generations.

So did he transfer the yeast via a siphon tube?

I harvest my yeast by siphoning it from primary carboy. I add boiled and cooled water, shake it very well to resuspend yeast and after 20-30 min siphon the fluid from a top to a jar. Works extremely well for ale yeast since you get very distinctive layer of trub and yeast. Not the case with lager yeast, hard to separate yeast and trub, seems like yeast usually ends up on the bottom and trub on top

I add a couple cups sanitized water to my carboy, shake and pour into a sanitized flask. Cover with sanitized foil, shake like crazy, decant yeast suspension off trub into another sanitary container.

i did this from a small blonde to an IPA a few weeks back and was worried about yeast count, viability, etc., i added water, swirled, waited 20 minutes, decanted. took that liquid, swirled, waited 20 minutes, decanted and then pitched immediately into my wort. the beer finished with 79% attenuation... i'm happy with that as it is a little more than the 75 i expected, but less than the 81% it had on the blonde (but its a much bigger beer).

the yeast washing sticky explains it all...

I just scoop out the trub and pitch.

paraordnance said:

I harvest my yeast by siphoning it from primary carboy. I add boiled and cooled water, shake it very well to resuspend yeast and after 20-30 min siphon the fluid from a top to a jar. Works extremely well for ale yeast since you get very distinctive layer of trub and yeast. Not the case with lager yeast, hard to separate yeast and trub, seems like yeast usually ends up on the bottom and trub on top

Click to expand...

So I probably have some very nicely washed trub instead of the WLP810 (SF lager yeast) I was trying for? I'll tell you what, trub is what it looks like I have; and I worked hard on that project to save the yeast. dangit.

My only input is regarding ale yeast- I get into the fermenter around day two, when it is rocking, and pull from the krausen. I place that into a 1 gallon wine jug with sterile wort to make a low gravity starter for my next batch. When the yeast has fermented out sugars, I chill it, pour off the 'beer' and add more sterile wort. This way I beleive am prolonging the life of the yeast by keeping ABV low, and also increasing the volume of yeast.

I've read about washing the trub, and storing in water, which seem a lot easier than my method. But, I'm on 5th generation from a liquid culture, and going strong. I brew one weekend a month, and the culture has been fine.

FWIW, I also hop the **** out of my starter wort. As I understand, the hops assist in preventing bacterial issues.

From what I've learned, the hops coat bacteria preventing infections, but also coat the yeast, making it hard for them to reproduce, which is not what you want in a starter. I don't know how much of an issue this is, but I respect Jamil Z. and he was talking about it on one of his podcasts. Just something to consider.

I'm not fond of pouring the slurry out of the neck of a carboy unless you've meticulously cleaned it or had the entire thing protected from nasties falling down onto it. The worst case is when you use a stopper because it leaves the top ledge of the carboy and that crease between the carboy and stopper exposed. I suppose you could wrap it with plastic wrap or foil during primary or spray it down with starsan before removing the stopper. It's more of a concern in an area where you may have ground your grain (lacto) but still, I prefer to siphon or pump it out with the autosiphon.