SpanishCastleAle
Well-Known Member
I'm just doing the carboy yeast washing method (per the 'Yeast Washing Illustrated' thread). All of the ale yeasts and most of the lager yeasts I have harvested all settled on top of the trub. So when I shook up the carboy...the trub would settle first and I could pour off the yeast in suspension.
But when I tried to do this with the Wyeast Czech Pils 2278 (Pilsner Urquell-D strain) the yeast settles UNDER the trub. So you can't let the trub settle and pour off the yeast. As a result, I never harvested any I just sort of decanted as much trub as I could and repitched it a few times.
What are some nifty ways to harvest this stuff?
I suppose I could shake it all up in the carboy...put a drilled stopper with racking cane into the bunghole and then invert the whole thing and let it settle. Then somehow try to partially remove the bung and get the yeast from the bottom and replug it when it gets to the trub. Sanitation might be compromised.
Other tweeks to that could be using a carboy cap...but this yeast is pretty clumpy..would probably clog...leading to more sanitation compromises.
Or what about this: Put a stopper with two holes drilled into a quart container. Put a short 'dip tube' in one hole and a longer diptube in the other. Somehow connect a vacuum source (like a vacuum cleaner or leaf blower...I would have a bypass just in case) to the short dip tube. Connect the racking cane (no stopper this time) in the carboy to the long dip tube. The racking cane is inserted below the trub into the yeast cake. Turn on the vacuum and if we have enough suckage and it should pull the yeast out from under the trub. Since we are just pulling air out using the vacuum...the lack of sanitation of the vacuum shouldn't be an issue as long as we put it in another room or something...don't want it stirring up dirty/dusty air in the room during this.
Any reasonably KISS methods using ordinary equipment?
But when I tried to do this with the Wyeast Czech Pils 2278 (Pilsner Urquell-D strain) the yeast settles UNDER the trub. So you can't let the trub settle and pour off the yeast. As a result, I never harvested any I just sort of decanted as much trub as I could and repitched it a few times.
What are some nifty ways to harvest this stuff?
I suppose I could shake it all up in the carboy...put a drilled stopper with racking cane into the bunghole and then invert the whole thing and let it settle. Then somehow try to partially remove the bung and get the yeast from the bottom and replug it when it gets to the trub. Sanitation might be compromised.
Other tweeks to that could be using a carboy cap...but this yeast is pretty clumpy..would probably clog...leading to more sanitation compromises.
Or what about this: Put a stopper with two holes drilled into a quart container. Put a short 'dip tube' in one hole and a longer diptube in the other. Somehow connect a vacuum source (like a vacuum cleaner or leaf blower...I would have a bypass just in case) to the short dip tube. Connect the racking cane (no stopper this time) in the carboy to the long dip tube. The racking cane is inserted below the trub into the yeast cake. Turn on the vacuum and if we have enough suckage and it should pull the yeast out from under the trub. Since we are just pulling air out using the vacuum...the lack of sanitation of the vacuum shouldn't be an issue as long as we put it in another room or something...don't want it stirring up dirty/dusty air in the room during this.
Any reasonably KISS methods using ordinary equipment?