MoreBeer Ultimate Yeast Harvester

Hello All,

Only because it was on sale, I ordered the MoreBeer Ultimate Yeast Harvester last week. Nevermind that I do not own one of their conicals; that is beside the point!

Anyway, I hope the weld on the conical is strong because this is one heavy piece of machinery! On the scales, it was a bit more than 6.5 pounds. The unit itself appears very well made and is quite impressive. All of the machining looks superb; although the clamps themselves seem a bit lower class as compared to the rest of the assembly. I'm not certain that everything is 100% stainless (including hinge pins, etc.). The other interesting thing to catch my eye was the weld for the pressure valve; it has a slight ridge. However, I'm sure it will be fine and harbor no nasties. I'm very excited to put this utensil to work! Now if my MoreBeer 14gal conical would just arrive!

Once in use, I'll follow up with a review for both the yeast harvester and the conical. I'll post some good pictures with close ups. During my research, I found it hard to get a good idea of what many of MoreBeer's products were like because their pictures weren't very detailed. There are no instructions included, so if I run into any snags I will post them.

Pictures of the Yeast Harvester can be found here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/zymurgy101/albums/morebeer-yeast-harvester/

The SWMBO had the good camera today, but I have been wanting to get some pics posted. I'll get more and update later.

Thanks!

Link to full review: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/morebeer-14-gallon-conical-fermenter-yeast-harvester-review-202021/

linky or pic maybe? work blocks most beer stuff but if someone links to morebeer i can see it

here's a link to the yeast harvester. my question, I've seen this, is this supposed to clamp on the outlet and you just leave the dump valve open and this thing fills with yeast? then when you want to remove this to "harvest, you just close the dump valve and remove?

As I mentioned, I'll post detailed pics soon.

Here are the details from the website on how it works; it does not come with any more detail (not that it is needed):

Our Yeast Harvester uses a full 2 inch sight glass, together with a 1.5 inch reducer at the top, to become the perfect vessel to capture yeast in. How it works: Yeast naturally fall to the bottom of our conicals (which is one of the nice things about them). After 3-4 days into fermentation, dump your trub as usual and close the butterfly valve. Attach the Yeast Harvester to the valve and re-open the valve, which will flood the harvester with beer and some yeast. Over the final days of fermentation, the yeast will drop out of solution and collect in the sight glass, displacing the beer. At the end of fermentation, you will have a full container of creamy white yeast - perfect for pitching a huge quantity of free yeast into your next batch. Close your bottom valve and disconnect the Yeast Harvester and attach the pressure relief cap over the opening and seal with a tri-clamp. Always store in the refrigerator. Included relief valve prevents over pressurization.

Great, glad to hear that you got one of these things! I am actually making a How-To video on these in a few weeks, so that should better explain how to use them. We are also working on getting instructions together in a nice format to include in with some of the bits we don't currently have any. I would have never thought to send some along, but we will now!

Very interested in hearing about your first use with this guy ...

$155 dollar!!! wow. that is roughly 44 packets of safale-05.... neat idea, but that thing is not worth it IMO

Jipper said:

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Very interested in hearing about your first use with this guy ...

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Hi Jason!

Just tell the guys in the shop to start building my conical and I'll make sure to report back as soon as it arrives!

sjlammer said:

$155 dollar!!! wow. that is roughly 44 packets of safale-05.... neat idea, but that thing is not worth it IMO

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They were on sale last week for $135, which is still expensive. However, if you held one, you would better appreciate the price point. Besides, when you are spending $1,000 for a conical, another $135 really isn't going to matter.

I've already used about sixteen packs of safale-05 since the beginning of the year; so it might not take me too long to recover the cost!

sjlammer said:

$155 dollar!!! wow. that is roughly 44 packets of safale-05.... neat idea, but that thing is not worth it IMO

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But then that 45th one, you will be wishing you had a harvester

I'd like to buy one of these to test out. All I need is for More Beer to give me a conical for testing purposes!

I don’t even need a large conical, since I only do five gallon batches, wouldn't want to be greedy or anything. Since I’m local, I could even swing by and pick everything up saving them a few bucks on shipping. I know, I know, very generous of me, but it's how I roll. :rockin:

Now that I think about it, REALLY testing this out would require me to brew a number of batches and I have a pretty basic setup. I think it would probably be best if you also throw in a brew sculpture...

Will it clamp onto a keg?

RegionalChaos said:

Will it clamp onto a keg?

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Provided your keg has a 1 1\2" tri-clamp fitting on the bottom, yes.

zymurgy101 said:

They were on sale last week for $135, which is still expensive. However, if you held one, you would better appreciate the price point. Besides, when you are spending $1,000 for a conical, another $135 really isn't going to matter.

I've already used about sixteen packs of safale-05 since the beginning of the year; so it might not take me too long to recover the cost!

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This is actually fairly priced. The price of the sightglass, reducer, clamps, and barb adapter would be close to $150, even on the open market. The inline triclover oxygenation setup is a different story....

zymurgy101 said:

Provided your keg has a 1 1\2" tri-clamp fitting on the bottom, yes.

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Say you flip a standard keg upside down. Now you have a tri-clamp fitting on the bottom. Is it 1 1/2"? I can't go measure one until after work, but was curious.

Posted pictures. Better quality ones will replace these in a few weeks when the conical arrives.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/zymurgy101/albums/morebeer-yeast-harvester/