Overthinking Yeast Harvest

[whovous]

Yeast and my brain seem unwilling to play nice together. I am never sure just what to try when it comes to harvesting from a slurry. But I wound up having to throw out several pint jar slurries of Conan, and now all I have left is what is in my Catalyst conical fermenter now. It is fourth generation and based on a LOT of Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy. Should I try to save it when I bottle tonight?

I was not planning to harvest from this 4.25 gallon batch when I started, because I did not realize my Conan pint slurry jars were too old and thus dead. Here is what I've done so far with the current brew:
1) Pitched a vitality starter from my one live Conan jar. I screwed a quart Mason jar on the bottom of the Catalyst and opened the valve.
2) I reached 1.013 a week later and threw out the trub from the jar.
3) I put three ounces of hop pellets into another quart jar, added some RO water to reduce the oxygen, and dry hopped from the jar on the bottom for a week, then removed the jar again and found my gravity was down to 1.010.
4) I attached yet another quart jar and cold crashed starting last Sunday. On Wednesday, I added gelatin. Tonight I plan to bottle.

Clearly, I have discarded a lot of yeast and added a lot of hops and gelatin to what I will find in the quart jar tonight. Is this worth trying to save?

 

[cladinshadows]

Yeast from a Double IPA is not ideal for repitching even if it's been treated perfectly. High alcohol and high hopping negatively impact the health of the yeast and its ability to reproduce. When it's mixed in with your dry hops it's also going to carry over some of that character to the next beer. In your case it sounds like the yeast used for the Double IPA was repitched slurry, and now it's been through (possibly another) high gravity, high IBU fermentation. Whether or not the gelatinous, hop-yeast slurry at the bottom of your fermentor is worth trying to save is a personal question - for me the answer would be definitely not. I wouldn't waste time and energy on trying to collect and preserve that yeast when it could possibly result in less-than-ideal beer the next time I try to use it.

Will what you find at the bottom or your Catalyst produce alcohol? Almost certainly. Will it make the best beer possible? Almost certainly not.

If you want to get more mileage out of your yeast here are a couple great methods:

Overbuilding your starters to save clean yeast slurry:
http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

Getting quality slurry from the bottom of your primary:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=41768

 

[whovous]

Thanks. That makes complete sense. I think I've become too attached to the Conan, just because it is not available locally and 100% of my yeast harvest experience to date has been with just this one yeast.

I will throw out the remaining yeast tomorrow and brew on Tuesday or Wednesday with San Diego Super. But first, I will overbuild via the Brulosophy method.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[itsbarleytime]

Top cropping has worked great for me. No dead yeast. No washing. I just get a trusty sterling silver spoon and a prepared Mason jar. Pop the lid at rappid air lock activity scoop some of that foam up plop it in the jar and top it with some clean water. Stick it the fridge with the lid not all the way tight. It's ready for a starter. It's a much easier process then washing yeast.

 

[whovous]

Sterling sliver spoon? Why?

I do like the idea of scooping the krausen, however. But what about oxidation?

 

[itsbarleytime]

Silver spoon not required however it is antibacterial and I happen to have one, lol. As for Oxidation? I feel that it gives the yeast a shot of oxygen durring it's most active state, Wich yeast like. And I don't have the lid off for any unnecessary length of time, straight to buisnes. So much co2 is being produced that it will push out that Oxygen in a jiffy. I will there after dry hop while lid is off if I am doing a beer that requires it. That way there is not as much impact of hop residues in yeast. I also use hop bag in the boil for residual hop reasons as well, for collecting yeast.

 

[itsbarleytime]

As for dry hopping some say you loose all your aroma when co2 is active, it pushes it out mabey but if you're paranoid about Oxidation it's a good time to do both top crop and dry hop. I sometimes will throw a bag of dry hops in the keg after its carbatated for a BIG hop aroma bomb purge a couple of toots. Dry hopping unrealated to original topic I know but something extra two birds one stone.

 

[itsbarleytime]

I would make a starter with that yeast then do a low gravity beer and top crop it. If its Conan. How did get the yeast? Harvest it yourself?

 

[whovous]

Gigayeast Vermont IPA is thought to be Conan. I bought a package a year or so ago and made a simple Centennial Blonde with the primary purpose of having yeast to harvest. I've used the yeast several times since then, but wound up with some really old and dead jars in the back of my fridge.

I cannot get this yeast at my LHBS (and they are out of their White Labs equivalent) and I am brewing too soon to get it by mail. I will go a different route this time. I have a package of San Diego Super and I intend to overbuild my starter.
http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/
and
http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php