Conical Yeast Harvesting (Homebrewing Scale)

[Brewmegoodbeer]

Hello all,

I have been researching on how to harvest yeast from a conical and I ran into 1) harvesting at an industrial scale and 2) just harvesting from carboys. I would like to know the steps to harvesting yeast from an 6.5 gallon conical fermenter. My main questions are: is rinsing the yeast necessary? How much yeast do you use to make a yeast starter/how much yeast is needed to make your next 5 gallon batch? From what I am assuming now is that you harvest when you get all of the thick trub out and it starts coming out of the dump valve as a white, creamy slurry. I would just do this at my dump after primary fermentation is done. I store in a sanitized mason jar (with or without airlock?). I then pour all of this into a vessel on top of my stir plate and follow yeast starter procedures. How do I know that I have enough yeast for my next batch? Am I missing any vital steps?

 

[enkamania]

Here is the thread I use https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=519995 My current beer is a third generation California Ale that was first pitched last December

 

[evilsmurfkiller]

Last batch I just rotated the racking arm down into the yeast, harvested a quart (10 gallon batch) into a sanitized container, cleaned/sanitized the fermenter and pitched it later that day. That beer came out great. WLP001 for an American Blonde repitched to an IPA.

 

[Brewmegoodbeer]

If I may ask, what is your dumping schedule? I was thinking to dump trub in 48 hours, harvest amd dump yeast at 2 weeks, cold crash it towards the end of the 3rd week and rack into a bottling bucket. Im going to make a vanilla porter. The 3rd week, im going to throw two vanilla beans in there.

 

[evilsmurfkiller]

If I may ask, what is your dumping schedule? I was thinking to dump trub in 48 hours, harvest amd dump yeast at 2 weeks, cold crash it towards the end of the 3rd week and rack into a bottling bucket. Im going to make a vanilla porter. The 3rd week, im going to throw two vanilla beans in there.

I'm on the third batch in the conical. Trub dump at 48 hours seems to be the most common recommendation, so that's what I've been doing. I've been kegging all my batches at 2 weeks. IPAs and the blonde, no point in letting them secondary for long.