Is it possible to use blow off yeast?

[CarlLBC]

Searched and couldn't find an answer. Doing a chimay GR clone and had a pretty good blow off into a glass container with 600ml star san. there is a pretty good amount of yeast in the star san. would it be possible to reuse this yeast or is it a waste of time to bother with. I know star san isn't bad for yeast but I didn't really want to eff up an expensive beer. All I would be doing is pouring of the star san and putting the yeast back into the fermenting beer. This is a pretty big beer and I want to make sure it ferments out. It's a little over half way done. Not really a big deal. just wonder if any one had done this or what the thoughts on this were. thanks.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yes.

However, StarSan IS bad for yeast when the ratio of yeast to solution is like that of blow-off. It's the buffering of pH between the minscule amount of StarSan from sanitizing and wort from racking that is not bad for yeast.

But here, you are talking about yeast swimming in NOTHING but a StarSan solution.

Otherwise. using yeast from a blowoff is the basis of the Burton Union system. That worked for decades.

 

[Bobby_M]

You basically need to route the blow off tubing into a sealed sanitized container through a grommet in the lid and also put an airlock into another grommet in the lid.

If yeast could live in sanitizing-strength starsan, it wouldn't be able to kill the organisms it is designed to kill (like other non intentional yeast).

 

[CarlLBC]

Thats what I figured. I pitched a smack pack and a 2000 L starter white labs vial. I'm not that worried about the pitching rate, just hope not too much of the yeast blew off in the the star san. I'm not too worried about reusing yeast on a regular basis, as I brew so little, just this time because of the expensive batch and high gravity. I wasn't sure if it was possible just to throw it back on top. It's still chugging away so it's all good.