Conical lager yeast harvest question

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craigrigney

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First of all, I have never done this before. I have been homebrewing for 3 years and decided to start harvesting and reusing yeast. My first attempt will be a lager yeast. I read numerus posting on here, but I feel like I am missing something. I went to Mrmalty and it says to re-pitch a 5.25 gallon batch lager with OG of 1.048, on a relatively thick yeast, I will need around 110ML of yeast cake. This is half a mason jar (the half pint). This seems like a ton of yeast considering my dumps produce a small 1/8 to 1/4 inch layer. Is this right? I know it takes much more lager yeast than ale, but this would take me like 5 dumps just to get 1/2 that amount. I think this is also assuming no starter. Any help is appreciated.
 
Yeast tend to stick to the walls of the conical so I use a rubber mallet and gently tap the cone a few time about 20 minutes or so before I aim to collect and I find that this increases my slurry yield quite a bit. Also, make sure you dump the trub early in the fermentation so your next dump should be pure yeast.
 
Not to jump in but how much should you pull? Prior to getting the yeast.

When yo wash the yeast do you just put in fridge and wait until it seperates?
 
What I have always done was pull until the liquid comes. For instance, the first pull is all semi-solids, trub, etc. The second was also pulling until it gets thinned out. I let is sit in the frige to see, and it looks like the semisolid thicker pull off the second pull is still mostly yeast. But, I still go back to getting 100ml of yeast is quite a bit. Is this how much people get after 2 to 3 pulls, or in reality, do you need less? If MrMalty calls for 110ML, but I only get 50 ml, would a starter with a stir palte finish the job?
 
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