Thinking about top cropping my yeast to minimize blow off.

[slayer021175666]

I have a bucket fermenting right now that really needs a blow off tube because its making a mess. Anyway, I already planned on top cropping the yeast but, I was going to do that on the 2nd day of fermentation which would be tomorrow. I began to wonder though, if I just do it now, wouldn't that aleviate the blow off mess? I think the only reason to wait until the 2nd day is to catch it at high krausen but, if it's aleady pushing through the airlock, wouldn't that mean there is plenty of yeast to just do it now? 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak?

 

[rhys333]

It's common practice to skim twice when top-cropping to get rid of fermentation byproducts and select for the best yeast cells. With that in mind, if i were dealing with your situation I'd skim some or most of the yeast and residues on day 1 and discard. Then return on day two and harvest the clean yeast.