Lacto infection, should I harvest yeast?

[Pivzavod]

So 2 batches in a row I had some funkiness. First batch had some white crusty floaties that people ruled out as infection. I am drinking that batch out of my 1st keg and its pretty delicious, no sourness whatsoever.

My Pumpkin Ale had some white stuff on top and a more experienced brewer from here said it was fine. A few days later the white stuff developed into what looks exactly like:

I tasted it and the beer is fine, I scooped up most of the nasty stuff and plan to bottle it (for aging purposes). My question is can I harvest the yeast or is the extra wild yeast can cause problems and replicate for every single batch I do it?

 

[greenbirds]

I would advise against harvesting any yeast from this batch... Even if the funk (first you said lacto, then wild yeast, I'm not sure which it is) is on the top, there are bound to be some cells dispersed throughout. When you make a starter with your harvest later on, you'll probably see it come to life alongside your original yeast.

 

[Pivzavod]

I would advise against harvesting any yeast from this batch... Even if the funk (first you said lacto, then wild yeast, I'm not sure which it is) is on the top, there are bound to be some cells dispersed throughout. When you make a starter with your harvest later on, you'll probably see it come to life alongside your original yeast.

1st batch is French Saison and the yeast was harvested from previous batch.

2nd batch with the picture shown is Pumpkin Ale and it uses English Ale yeast. I was planning on reusing it for a Bass Clone ale that I have but I guess I can live without it. I do have some dry yeast (Muntons & Safale somewhere).

 

[Bopper]

I definitely would not harvest yeast from that batch. The chances are too high that you'll also havest some lacto cells as well.

 

[elmetal]

us04 for that english!

 

[Pivzavod]

dont have any us04, i primarily do wheat beers and use liquid.

 

[elmetal]

hmm.. a wheat yeast would definitely not to well for an english beer.

go buy a packet of us04 (likely under 2-3 dollars) and you'll fall in love with the yeast.

what kinda liquid strains do you have? maybe an american wheat strain wouldn't be crazy out of style but you never know. it's all about experimenting.

 

[Pivzavod]

I would not use my liquids for Bass Clone. I'll try to trade my dry yeast for us04 or in the worst case scenario use Muntons. We dont really have any LHBS's around here so I do all my shopping online. I dont need to buy anything at the moment since I still have 6kits to brew. Buying 1 yeast pack would be an overkill on shipping charges, unless the store is willing to send it inside a regular envelope

 

[Hugh_Jass]

So that did turn out to be infected?

have you found the source of the infected batches?

I'd discard the yeast cake from this batch. I'll check my fridge when I get home tonight. If I have a us-04, I'll send it to you, if you'd like.

 

[Pivzavod]

I think it was just something wild in the air. The first batch people said its not an infection and I am currently drinking it from a keg and its delicious. The second one was nasty looking and I just bottled it yesterday (want the spices to mellow out). I have reused the primary of the first batch and its not showing any signs of infection.

I am cleaning / sanitizing it with Coopers sanitizer that I barely used since getting into the hobby. I have always cleaned with water and sanitized with Starsan. I now also have some PBW which I use to clean kegs. I might buy some bleach and nuke my fermentors with it just for safe measures and kill all the nasties.