Harvesting yeast.

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jcs401

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I have a Carboy that I drained and want to try for the first time to harvest the yeast. Unfortunately I totally forgot to cap the carboy overnight as it was late and was going to harvest it this morning. Should it still be ok as it's been sitting overnight open? Or trash it?
 
Do it but maybe don't keep what you harvest if you think it is anything but yeast. It would be a great practice if you're going to throw it away anyways.
 
I would risk it = harvest it, then make a starter to check-out it's viability. Time consuming but it's fun :)
 
I am new to harvesting yeast and I have a very basic question. I have a 5.5 gallon batch of ale (1.068 OG) that has just finished primary, and I plan on transferring to secondary tomorrow. I would like to harvest the yeast (Wyeast 1056, grown to approximately 399 b cells through a two-stage starter). I've read up on harvesting and rinsing, so I feel like I know how to do both. My question is, if I plan to brew again within another week or two, is the cell count of what I harvest going to be sufficient for another five gallon batch (OG 1.065-1.070)?
 
I am new to harvesting yeast and I have a very basic question. I have a 5.5 gallon batch of ale (1.068 OG) that has just finished primary, and I plan on transferring to secondary tomorrow. I would like to harvest the yeast (Wyeast 1056, grown to approximately 399 b cells through a two-stage starter). I've read up on harvesting and rinsing, so I feel like I know how to do both. My question is, if I plan to brew again within another week or two, is the cell count of what I harvest going to be sufficient for another five gallon batch (OG 1.065-1.070)?

There is no need to transfer to secondary, just keep in primary for three weeks and bottle. And the resulting yeast cake will have about 1,000 Billion cells. I usually use 1/4-1/3 of this to pitch into my next 1.070/6 gallon batch.
 
Thanks, smata67. If I use, say, 1/3 of the yeast cake I harvest in a week or two, then store the rest (maybe two pint jars) in the fridge for, say, a month or two, I assume I could make starters using the stored pints?
 
Y
Thanks, smata67. If I use, say, 1/3 of the yeast cake I harvest in a week or two, then store the rest (maybe two pint jars) in the fridge for, say, a month or two, I assume I could make starters using the stored pints?

You can, but I have found that 1/4 to 1/3 is sufficient to re-pitch directly without a starter, you have 250-300B cells there, check out the ABV calculators, that is about what is recommended for this SG and batch size.
 
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