BoundForBeer
Well-Known Member
Hey so I looked at my blowoff and saw a nice thick layer of yeast at the bottom. My question is it ok to harvest it and wash it? My better judgement says to just dump it. Just wondering what people think / have done.
Washing yeast from blowoff
- Thread starter BoundForBeer
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It is yeast, and it will make beer if you pitch it into something else. 
That said, I would not save it. When harvesting yeast, you always want to be careful about any unintentional selection pressure you are exerting on your population. If you harvest yeast from secondary, for example, you are only capturing the yeast that didn't flocculate out, and thus you will end up with a disproportionate amount of high-attenuation, low floccing yeast. I'm not sure what kind of yeast would be favored from a blow-off; it might be a good sample, but my hunch is that you are going to be getting a narrowly described population of some kind or another.
That said, I would not save it. When harvesting yeast, you always want to be careful about any unintentional selection pressure you are exerting on your population. If you harvest yeast from secondary, for example, you are only capturing the yeast that didn't flocculate out, and thus you will end up with a disproportionate amount of high-attenuation, low floccing yeast. I'm not sure what kind of yeast would be favored from a blow-off; it might be a good sample, but my hunch is that you are going to be getting a narrowly described population of some kind or another.
