Yeast harvest from bottles question

[ebeer]

For kicks I thought I'd try harvesting and growing up some yeast from a Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet. While I do a starter for every brew, I've never actually grown up samples from a bottle.

I took a bit of dregs from 4 or 5 bottles. It's been on my stir plate for about a week now. I started the harvested amount in 1000mL, which stayed very clear for 3-4 days then went opaque indicating a lot of yeast activity. I let it go for another day, then added an additional 1000mL of wort.

2 days later it's still spinning and appears to be pretty active. My plan was to decant and spin up at least one more time on the stir plate on a new 2000mL starter.

The wort is light in color, but cloudy. No off smell. Seems to me I'm good to go. Does this all seem right?

 

[pompeiisneaks]

I've never done the harvesting you mention, but to me it sounds like normal yeast behavior I see in brewing and in starters, so I'm gonna say my gut says yes. You'll know for sure when you step it again and see what happens. Good luck.

 

[Homercidal]

Sounds good. You could chill the yeast and settle it out, and then warm up again for the next round.

What I like to do (what I plan on doing in the future) is to make enough to pitch on a beer, and some left over to save in the fridge for next time. It's much easier to get a starter going from a vial of previously harvested yeast, than it is to start a harvest from the bottle again.