Has anyone ever harvested from the top of a primary while fermenting?

[StinkyVp]

I slightly overpitched into an overly full bucket (~600 ML in 5.7G in 6G bucket) and while taking the top off to clean yeast out of the airlock I see this giant layer of really clean looking yeast. I was thinking I could scoop out some of that for use later and also to stop it from blowing through the airlock. Of course everything would be sterile.

Would that be a way to get really fresh clean yeast or is it a waste of time since I harvest and reuse anyway?

 

[pabloj13]

I slightly overpitched into an overly full bucket (~600 ML in 5.7G in 6G bucket) and while taking the top off to clean yeast out of the airlock I see this giant layer of really clean looking yeast. I was thinking I could scoop out some of that for use later and also to stop it from blowing through the airlock. Of course everything would be sterile.

Would that be a way to get really fresh clean yeast or is it a waste of time since I harvest and reuse anyway?

Yeah, look up top cropping. Breweries do this. I take mine from the blowoff, but you could just as easily take a little with a sanitized scoop.

 

[MNDan]

Works great! 1272 is one of my favorites for top-cropping...

 

[lowtones84]

Yeah, I just did this actually. I planned it so I was brewing a similar beer two days after I brewed my first one. Collected about 1/2 cup from the krausen with a sanitized scoop and pitched it into the second beer right away, no delay. Four hours later I had action, after 6 hours I had a thin but apparent krausen!

 

[winterc]

I have when brewing Friday and then Sunday, cropped and tossed it into the new batch. It took off pretty well, I took about half the kruasen and put it in the new batch.