Collecting yeast from the blowoff?

Dcpcooks · Apr 10, 2016

Is anyone collecting yeast at the blowoff? I have a 1/2 barrel conical. We have been getting a lot of yeast in the blowoff bucket on our last two batches.

1st batch was a monster stout at 1.129 with Nottingham and the seasonal wyeast PC Thames valley

Next batch was a 1.062 hopped up American wheat with wyeast 1010 and a bit of WL 001.

The blowoff happened well before alcohol levels were high. So, it's not tainted by Abv.

I'm pretty sure I can rig a sanitary blow off set up but I'm not sure what the best liquid would be. I'm thinking distilled water in a sterile container with a stainless steel blow off setup.

I know I'd be selecting a certain type of yeast behavior but I could blend it back with the yeast collected from the bottom of the conical after I dump trub and wash yeast.

I think my mechanical challenge is releasing c02 from the sanitary blowoff. It is also a sanitary challenge.

Let me know if you think it's viable. I know someone is trying this!

Gnomebrewer · Apr 11, 2016

I've thought about this before (watching heaps of WY3068 lost through blow-off), but never tried it. It should collect yeast in much the same way as top-cropping - a very effective method for some strains (I find it cleaner for my English yeasts than bottom collection). The issue is limiting exposure to air (contaminants). My thoughts were to try the blowoff going into a smaller, closed vessel via a spigot, which has it's own airlock at the top. In the blow-off vessel, I'd suggest a weak acid solution in the pH range of beer (4 to 4.5) to allow the yeast to survive, but prevent bacterial growth. You could even use a small amount of finished beer!

kingmatt · Apr 11, 2016

Dcpcooks said:
Is anyone collecting yeast at the blowoff? I have a 1/2 barrel conical. We have been getting a lot of yeast in the blowoff bucket on our last two batches.

1st batch was a monster stout at 1.129 with Nottingham and the seasonal wyeast PC Thames valley

Next batch was a 1.062 hopped up American wheat with wyeast 1010 and a bit of WL 001.

The blowoff happened well before alcohol levels were high. So, it's not tainted by Abv.

I'm pretty sure I can rig a sanitary blow off set up but I'm not sure what the best liquid would be. I'm thinking distilled water in a sterile container with a stainless steel blow off setup.

I know I'd be selecting a certain type of yeast behavior but I could blend it back with the yeast collected from the bottom of the conical after I dump trub and wash yeast.

I think my mechanical challenge is releasing c02 from the sanitary blowoff. It is also a sanitary challenge.

Let me know if you think it's viable. I know someone is trying this!