How do you harvest yeast?

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How do you harvest yeast?

  • Wash from a finished fermentation

  • Slant yeast with agar

  • Splitting a yeast starter and saving a part

  • Pitch wort over a yeast cake


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BrotherGrim

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I have read about slanting, washing, and much more rarely, splitting. I have washed yeast, and just recently I split a starter. The split looks nice and viable in the vial, but I don't know how long it will last compared to a washed sample.

To the question then, do you slant, do you wash, or do you split starters, and which do you think is best, and why.

I searched for something like this, and I think for someone who is looking to reduce costs by keeping yeast strains, this may prove to be a very useful thread.

EDIT: If I could please have a Moderator change the title to "What method do you use to harvest yeast" I realized it's not really clear the way I asked it.
 
Normally pitch over a yeast cake. I do wash yeast occasionally, but for the cost of new yeast, I don't usually take the time. When I can arrange it, a well planned yeast cake yields a clean, fast fermented brew with minimal effort. It's just good practice!
 
Normally pitch over a yeast cake. I do wash yeast occasionally, but for the cost of new yeast, I don't usually take the time. When I can arrange it, a well planned yeast cake yields a clean, fast fermented brew with minimal effort. It's just good practice!

Do you arrange to have one ready for bottling or kegging when you brew? I haven't ever used this method, so I am curious as to the details.
 
BrotherGrim said:
Do you arrange to have one ready for bottling or kegging when you brew? I haven't ever used this method, so I am curious as to the details.

Usually! I have bottled one day, brewed the next, but a 1 day operation is best!

You can bottle a batch while you mash the other with a little planning.
 
Do you pitch your new wort right on top of the yeast and trub or do you try to clean it up somewhat?
 
The past couple times I've made a starter I will decant the liquid and then pour enough slurry back into the white labs vial to fill it up. It's pretty easy and the yeast seems clean. It does reduce my pitch rate by ~25% but it's pretty easy. I'd be interested to hear what people think he pros and cons of this would be.
 
The past couple times I've made a starter I will decant the liquid and then pour enough slurry back into the white labs vial to fill it up. It's pretty easy and the yeast seems clean. It does reduce my pitch rate by ~25% but it's pretty easy. I'd be interested to hear what people think he pros and cons of this would be.

This is why I started thus thread. I knew I couldn't be the only one looking for input. I also have been splitting starters recently but I don't have enough data to know whether or not it will be a problem.
 
I do save yeast from finished fermentations, but I don't really wash it. My process largely eliminates hop and break material in the fermenter, so I'd say that 90%+ of my trub is yeast. All I do is scoop it out with a sanitized glass, pour it into sanitized mason jars and refrigerate or freeze depending on the status of my chest freezer. I just pitched an oatmeal stout with a starter I made from harvested US-05 and it took off in under 4 hours.
 
There isn't an option for me.

I save the slurry and pitch an appropriate portion of slurry from previous batches. This is sort of like pitching wort over a yeast cake, except sometimes my slurry hangs around in my fridge for a couple of weeks. Washing yeast increases a chance for infection, and I find no benefit in flavor from it.
 
So what do people do with big beers? Normally I wash my yeast but I've never been able to wash yeast from my big Belgium beers because I've heard that the yeast are "exhausted." What do others do in this situation? Do you reclaim the yeast or do you buy yeast each time you do a big beer?
 
I ALWAYS try to pitch a BIG beer onto a yeast cake. I'll make a little pale or a red... whatever I can brew with the intended yeast. Think of a yeast cake as decanting a 5 gallon hopped starter. You'll be fine. Try it.... I dare you!

Challenge accepted.
 
I rinse my yeast. I put 6 half pint jars and a quart jar in my pressure cooker for 20 minutes at least a day or two in advance. Rack the beer to secondary. wipe the rim of the fermenter with starsan. Pour all of the sanitized water into the fermenter. let it settle for 15-20 minutes. Pour into a big sanitized pitcher leaving the trub behind. cover with sanitized foil. let settle another 15 minutes. Pour into half pint jars. Put the lids back on and put in fridge. I have found they last about 9 months in the fridge. The older they get, the less viable they are. So, the older ones I may need to step up a few times on a stir plate. I like using the half pint jars because I have found that stepping them up a few times makes them healthier rather than a larger pitch that hasn't gone through a cycle (or starter) in a while.
 
I wipe out the remaining kreusen from the fermentor walls and pitch directly onto the yeast cake. Not only does it keep your pipeline going but it also doesn't get much easier or more efficient. Just make sure to follow the basic rules i.e. don't pitch a cream ale onto an oaked bourbon stout or IIPA yeast cake, etc.
 
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