Reusing Yeast From Blowoff?

[PhelanKA7]

Noob question:

I have a big beer (1.108 OG) that is currently pushing foam up through the blowoff tube into a jug. I am worried about losing too much yeast and not having enough left over to finish the fermentation properly.

Should I...

A) Get another jug, sanitize it, run the foam into jug and harvest yeast and repitch as it fills up?

B) Wait until fermentation appears to have halted and if above my desired FG, repitch with a Scottish Ale Yeast I have?

C) RDWADHB?

 

[Nuggethead]

don't re-pitch anything from the blow-off jug, you will ruin your beer. You won't lose enough active yeast during blow-off that would require an additional pitch. Just leave it be and allow extra ferment time if needed.

 

[bovineblitz]

You can't possibly lose enough yeast. The entire fermenter is teeming with it.

 

[PhelanKA7]

don't re-pitch anything from the blow-off jug, you will ruin your beer. You won't lose enough active yeast during blow-off that would require an additional pitch. Just leave it be and allow extra ferment time if needed.

It just looks like the yeast are packing their bags and heading thru that tube en masse to me. I really would like them all to stay put because I need each and every one of them for such a big beer.

But thanks. Your answer is what I was hoping was the case.

You can't possibly lose enough yeast. The entire fermenter is teeming with it.

I'm not so sure. You can still see the layer where I poured my starter in this afternoon. This has started a violent fermentation only 4 hours after pitching. (And I pitched at 58F)

 

[ffaoe]

you can't possibly lose enough yeast. The entire fermenter is teeming with it.

+1

 

[PhelanKA7]

I could see the yeast being all over the fermenter if this was a day or more after I pitched, but we're talking less than a handful of hours since I pitched...

 

[PhelanKA7]

Here is a picture to better illustrate what I am talking about:

See the lighter part at the top? That is my yeast/starter. I am afraid I'm going to blow out my entire starter before it even gets to the body of the wort. Maybe not. I've never had this little headspace in a fermenter so I'm at a bit of a loss.

 

[Nuggethead]

maybe give it 6 or 8 drops of fermcap or similar and the foam will drop and blow-off should stop.

 

[Nuggethead]

Also, it looks pretty normal to me. Most of my beers ferment like that. it looks to me that most of whats at the top is foam from CO2 bubbles rising, personally I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[PhelanKA7]

Also, it looks pretty normal to me. Most of my beers ferment like that. it looks to me that most of whats at the top is foam from CO2 bubbles rising, personally I wouldn't sweat it.

Yeah, I'm hoping that most of it is just proteins/sugars from the starter and wort. I guess we'll see. Thanks for the response. Feel free to subscribe if you want my follow up in about a week. If you're right, I owe you a beer

 

[Nuggethead]

I don't have much of anything but yeast from my starters. I always decant off most of the liquid before pitching. I always have a bottle of fermcap handy for boiling my starters to keep them from boiling over on the stovetop. It works the same way during active fermentation to keep from losing your beer from excessive blow-off, especially when doing high gravity beers. I've only used it a few times for fermentation on Barleywines. A lot of brewers just pull of the airlocks a let it blow and then re-install the airlock after blow-off slows with no problem. It will cause the loss of some beer but re-pitching is largely unnecessary.

 

[PhelanKA7]

Never heard of fermcap. I'll have to look into it the next time I brew something big in this fermenter. I don't have trouble with boil overs... I just use the valve control on my propane tank and keep a spray bottle of water handy.

 

[Nuggethead]

Here it is..

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/FERMCAP-FOAM-CONTROL-P1106C57.aspx

 

[Jboyles123]

I love multiple choice questions. The answer is "C".

 

[PhelanKA7]

Changed out my blowoff jug so I don't wake up to it overflowing onto the floor. It's too bad I'm not brewing another beer any time soon. I think I could use this thing as a starter all by itself if it wasn't for the water being made up of 3 week old StarSan.

 

[PhelanKA7]

Well, I owe you a beer Nuggethead. Took my first sample today and it is sitting at 1.017 SG and I am getting no hints of stressed yeast via fusels or anything else but I think it is going to be a really tasty beer. PM me if you're interested in a bomber of it.

 

[Cyclman]

Please don't quote me on this, but my understanding is that kraeusen is yeast beyond the needed yeast precipitating out of the beer. The amount of yeast at the beginning of ferm is huge, and spread throughout the beer. I thought I've read that some German breweries intentionally remove the kraeusen via tubes just above the level of the beer, and use it to ferment their next batch.

How one would collect this and keep it sanitary I don't know. I bet Kai could comment.

 

[PhelanKA7]

Please don't quote me on this, but my understanding is that kraeusen is yeast beyond the needed yeast precipitating out of the beer. The amount of yeast at the beginning of ferm is huge, and spread throughout the beer. I thought I've read that some German breweries intentionally remove the kraeusen via tubes just above the level of the beer, and use it to ferment their next batch.

How one would collect this and keep it sanitary I don't know. I bet Kai could comment.

I can't remember if it's top-cropping or what but I think there is a fermenter design that allows that to happen. I just read this on Wyeasts website as well:

Krausening:
An effective alternative to bottom cropping is krausening wort with fermenting wort. If brewing schedule permits, pitch ⅕ volume actively fermenting beer at peak activity (approximately 48 hours into fermentation) into freshly brewed wort. This technique avoids the hazards of manual bottom cropping and will help to maintain a consistent yeast population. The downside to krausening is the difficulty in brew scheduling, tank availability, and the reduction of finished product volume.

 

[BigFloyd]

If you have a blow-out going on, the number of billions yeast cells has exponentially grown to the point where there's a whole bunch of them producing an above-average amount of CO2 and froth.

No need to repitch anything.

The harvesting of krausen yeast is simply an alternative to bottom harvesting, typically so you can get it early in the process for use in another batch. It's not so you can put it back into the wort from which it came.