Harvesting Bottle Dregs

[sweetcell]

I think the best would be for me to make a jar or 2 of 1.020 starter and then each time I add dregs I can pour in a small amount of starter to the dregs jar to feed the late-comers as you said.

what will you do with the unused starter wort? you want to be sure that airborne nasties don't take up residence. best would be to freeze it until needed (idea: clean and sanitize an ice-cube tray, make some wort cubes, and dump them into a new zip lock bag, take out as needed). personally i just make it up as needed: boil in the microwave in a small mason jar, let cool, pitch.

 

[bovineblitz]

There was a Brew Strong podcast several years ago on yeast washing where Jamil describes his process of growing up dregs from a single bottle. I've had good success with this method.
You basically pour your beer off but leave a small amount on top of the yeast cake, sanitize top, put foil on top and put back in the fridge for a week to fully settle the yeast. Then decant that remaining beer off.
Then make like a 1020 wort and put it directly in that same bottle, swirl up the yeast cake and let it ferment out. You can step up from there.
I've been doing this with Crooked Stave beers and it works very well. Even see cool little pellicles in the bottles after a few days. In these beers, I let the pellicle drop out, then decant again and step up yeast in another vessel. You can taste that decanted beer and you get a really good sense of what you are dealing with.


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Why would you be worried about that tiny amount of beer? Just put the wort in the bottle with the little teeny bit of beer and get your starter going right away.

 

[stvo]

Use a gallon jug, harvest in apple juice keep it at 100F or room temp if if you can't, and add juice as you pour off purge with 02 bugs hate oxy

 

[sweetcell]

purge with 02 bugs hate oxy

i think you meant CO2, not O2...

and some bugs like oxygen, or are indifferent. some lacto do fine with oxygen, and if you consider brett a bug then it's quite happy with O2.