Harvesting Conan from Heady Topper cans

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brewinginct

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Yesterday, I attempted to harvest Conan yeast from some Heady Topper cans. The beer was probably canned three months ago.

Here's my procedure. (Just a note: I'm aware that it would have been ideal if I had used heat/flame to sterilize the mason jar and cans, rather than Star San.)

1. I prepared 150 ml of wort with a gravity of 1.020, which I poured into a sanitized mason jar.

2. I sanitized three cans of Heady Topper with Star San and poured all but about 30ml of the beer into pint glasses.

3. The remaining 30 ml of beer was swirled around in each can and then poured into the wort in the mason jar.

4. I covered the mason jar with sanitized tin foil and left it in a dark spot, swirling it occasionally.

150 ml isn't exactly a lot of food for the yeast, so I expected this first step in the starter to finish quickly. I checked today and saw zero signs of activity (no foam, clear wort.)

I do think that there is more trub at the bottom of the glass, which could be yeast. The thing is that the trub looks grey, which makes me think it's more the flakes from the can than yeast.

Right now I have the starter sitting in my fridge; I plan on giving it 24 hours, then I will decant and step up to a 1000 ml starter with a gravity of 1.040.

Is my attempt at harvesting Conan off to a bad start? A typical start? I've never harvested yeast from a bottle/can, and despite reading threads on here about harvesting yeast I am still unsure what to expect at this point.
 
Alright, I read through the thread, great information there.

Based on your advice, and the posts in that thread, I should take that starter out of the fridge and put it somewhere warm until Monday? No need to step up or anything? Should there be any problems from having it in the fridge tonight?
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/heady-topper-yeast-harvest-404411/

Read through that thread. Your experience is typical for the first step. Ideally you want to be in the low-mid 70s ambient, especially during the first couple of steps. I let my first step go 4 days before I saw enough yeast growth to be comfortable stepping up

+1

My HT starter took 4 days to show any real yeast growth as well. Take it out of the fridge and let it sit till Monday. By then you should see sufficient growth to begin stepping it up.
 
Agreed on warming it up and letting it sit. It's not like a few days at room temp will do any harm. We've all left beer set out for a few days, or a few weeks, when signs of active ferment have slowed . Right?
 
your first problem was letting a can of HT sit for 3 months ;)

there is no point in decanting that 1st small step - it's possible that you didn't see any activity because it happened quickly or without much visual activity but since it was only a day it probably didn't get started esp since it was a few months old - let it warm over the weekend - you could always check the gravity if you have a refractometer as well
 
Thanks for all of the input. It turns out that like most things in home brewing, patience was the key.

I followed the collective advice and left the starter out over the weekend. By the following Monday, there was a little more sediment at the bottom of the jar, although it was still grey.

As soon as I pitched the starter into a 2000ml flask with 500ml of 1.040 gravity wort, it took off. The starter looked healthier this time, and after two days all activity had ceased and there was a nice yeast cake at the bottom.

I've had the starter in the fridge for the past two days, and tonight I decanted it and added 1000ml of fresh wort. I’ll update once activity takes off.

For those who have done this before, what method did you use to maintain a pure culture? I could just wash the yeast after I ferment it, but I want to preserve a clean culture from the starter.

I’ve read about making slants and freezing yeast, but I was hoping that there was an easier method that I could use for the time being.
 
brewinginct said:
Thanks for all of the input. It turns out that like most things in home brewing, patience was the key.

I followed the collective advice and left the starter out over the weekend. By the following Monday, there was a little more sediment at the bottom of the jar, although it was still grey.

As soon as I pitched the starter into a 2000ml flask with 500ml of 1.040 gravity wort, it took off. The starter looked healthier this time, and after two days all activity had ceased and there was a nice yeast cake at the bottom.

I've had the starter in the fridge for the past two days, and tonight I decanted it and added 1000ml of fresh wort. I’ll update once activity takes off.

For those who have done this before, what method did you use to maintain a pure culture? I could just wash the yeast after I ferment it, but I want to preserve a clean culture from the starter.

I’ve read about making slants and freezing yeast, but I was hoping that there was an easier method that I could use for the time being.

Why don't you just follow the thread linked in post #2?

Or this one?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/conan-yeast-experiences-397947/

Great info already available! :mug:
 
Thanks for all of the input. It turns out that like most things in home brewing, patience was the key.

I followed the collective advice and left the starter out over the weekend. By the following Monday, there was a little more sediment at the bottom of the jar, although it was still grey.

As soon as I pitched the starter into a 2000ml flask with 500ml of 1.040 gravity wort, it took off. The starter looked healthier this time, and after two days all activity had ceased and there was a nice yeast cake at the bottom.

I've had the starter in the fridge for the past two days, and tonight I decanted it and added 1000ml of fresh wort. I’ll update once activity takes off.

For those who have done this before, what method did you use to maintain a pure culture? I could just wash the yeast after I ferment it, but I want to preserve a clean culture from the starter.

I’ve read about making slants and freezing yeast, but I was hoping that there was an easier method that I could use for the time being.



Make more starter than you need for your pitch (I try for a pint), or make a little extra and step it up to a pint after you pitch what you need for the beer. Pour that pint into a 16oz jar and cold crash. Decant after cold crash, add 8oz of sterile water shake it up, pour into 8oz mason jar. Boom -- you have as close to pure as you are going to get without slanting.

More detail on this process below.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html
 
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