Yeast Harvesting

So I got the conical fired up & it is working great (the one on e-bay). Question on harvesting yeast. I have dumped over the past few days & I am still getting what looks like trub & not yeast. It is pudding consistency & green. What are the experiences on getting trub & how long will it take to get yeast out of the bottom of the fermenter?

I dump and throw away a bowl full after about 3-4 days. Maybe a day or two later I dump and discard another half bowl and then fill my mason jars.

I have had some that seemed a little green/dark but as long as you sterilize your container you are putting your yeast in you should be fine.

The part that worries me is the chunks I see in the current pulls from the conical. I did not strain this batch like I did when I was going into a carboy but I did use a Whirlock tablet in the batch to clear. If I am still getting chucks of hops still I would say it should continue to be dumped till it goes white? I used a Whitelabs yeast in this example.

Never harvested directly from a conical before (don't own one..) but you may just need to wash what you pulled out. It is very likely that along with the trub that you are getting out the bottom, yeast is also there. After pulling off the bottom once or twice, collect some in a large, sanitized jar and allow it to settle for a bit. You can then decant the top layer of yeast off of the settled trub at the bottom. This should allow you to harvest the yeast, regardless of whether trub came along with it or not.

Did you use hop pellets or leaf hops?

Why don't you take a jar of this daily for a few days in a row and compare when you are done? I am almost positive that I get trub and hops in my samples even after I dump and discard a couple times prior. I still have nice starters and great beer from the harvested yeast so I would not worry too much.

Excellent suggestions, thanks! I will post some pictures shortly after I get some settled & washed & let you know what I get. I used pellets & the chunks are the left overs, atleast that is what it looks like.

I try to have at least 2 jars anyways in case one gets funk-d-fied. Never had this happen but I have been told if one is bad you will definitely know it when you open the jar.