What should harvested yeast look like?

[ISS IT Guy]

Hey HBT,

I got into home brewing this year and have been trying to brew consistently in 2019 and was aiming for 12 batches in 12 months. In early November I decided to harvest the yeast using a separatory funnel that I got in August. My purpose for doing this is that it can save me the cost of having to buy yeast when I purchase ingredients, plus it's just fun.

On my 8th and most recent brew, an IPA, I pitched some yeast that I had harvested from brew #7 which was the Rushmore IPA recipe out of Palmer's book using Wyeast 1056. The fermentation was highly active and I ended up with about 3 inches of yeast cake/sediment at the bottom, which I harvested again. Does this look alright to pitch? And does anyone know about the amount of yeast I should be pitching when using harvested yeast? Since this time I ended up with a ton of sediment at the bottom, I want to make sure I'm not overpitching or using more yeast than I need to be.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Hey HBT,

I got into home brewing this year and have been trying to brew consistently in 2019 and was aiming for 12 batches in 12 months. In early November I decided to harvest the yeast using a separatory funnel that I got in August. My purpose for doing this is that it can save me the cost of having to buy yeast when I purchase ingredients, plus it's just fun.

On my 8th and most recent brew, an IPA, I pitched some yeast that I had harvested from brew #7 which was the Rushmore IPA recipe out of Palmer's book using Wyeast 1056. The fermentation was highly active and I ended up with about 3 inches of yeast cake/sediment at the bottom, which I harvested again. Does this look alright to pitch? And does anyone know about the amount of yeast I should be pitching when using harvested yeast? Since this time I ended up with a ton of sediment at the bottom, I want to make sure I'm not overpitching or using more yeast than I need to be.

I'd decant down to the 200 ml mark and pitch. Cheers

 

[hottpeper13]

I don't know how much yeast is in that flask, so can't really say how much to pitch. Key word here is CONSISTENTLY! I pitch 1/4 of a 5 gal slurry in an ale and 1/2 in a lager. Don't have a cool funnel like you but I want one. I tend to do the same things over and over when they work.

 

[brewdude88]

Dang it I'm trying really hard now not to hit the buy button on Amazon for one of those funnels! Looks handy.

 

[seatazzz]

We no need no fancy funnels and flasks to re-use yeast...I use sanitized mason jars. From a standard 5g batch I'll get three of the small ones, or two of the quart jars, full of slurry; seal them off and stick them in the fridge (labelled with yeast strain, generation, and date of course). One of the small jars, or half of one of the big ones, is plenty and more for another 5g batch. Just let it get to room temp, shake gently to get all of the yeast stirred up, and pitch. Three generations is a good stopping point.

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

We no need no fancy funnels and flasks to re-use yeast...I use sanitized mason jars. From a standard 5g batch I'll get three of the small ones, or two of the quart jars, full of slurry; seal them off and stick them in the fridge (labelled with yeast strain, generation, and date of course). One of the small jars, or half of one of the big ones, is plenty and more for another 5g batch. Just let it get to room temp, shake gently to get all of the yeast stirred up, and pitch. Three generations is a good stopping point.

+1
Looks like this. Sometimes more slurry in bottom than these two but these both have plenty:

 

[ISS IT Guy]

We no need no fancy funnels and flasks to re-use yeast...I use sanitized mason jars. From a standard 5g batch I'll get three of the small ones, or two of the quart jars, full of slurry; seal them off and stick them in the fridge (labelled with yeast strain, generation, and date of course). One of the small jars, or half of one of the big ones, is plenty and more for another 5g batch. Just let it get to room temp, shake gently to get all of the yeast stirred up, and pitch. Three generations is a good stopping point.

Right nobody needs fancy funnels or flasks, but I was sick of playing musical mason jars and having to sanitize the jars, lids, and screw tops. With the separatory funnel, all I have to do is add some boiled, chilled water to the carboy, shake it up a good bit, then decant it directly into the funnel. Plus, my wife needed her jars back!

 

[kh54s10]

Right nobody needs fancy funnels or flasks, but I was sick of playing musical mason jars and having to sanitize the jars, lids, and screw tops. With the separatory funnel, all I have to do is add some boiled, chilled water to the carboy, shake it up a good bit, then decant it directly into the funnel. Plus, my wife needed her jars back!

I don't get this. You didn't like sanitizing jars.. Now you boil then chill water, sanitize the funnel.. Then what? You still need a jar or something to keep the yeast in and you have to sanitize that. It seems like you made a lot of extra work to save a little space.

When I buy liquid yeast, I make a starter that is larger than needed for the recipe coming up. I have 20 ml vials. I add 5 ml yeast, 5 ml glycerin and 10 ml water to the vial. I shake that up and put it in the refrigerator over night. The next day I shake it up again and freeze the 4 vials I have filled. I have about 12 varieties of yeast in the frozen yeast bank and have resurrected yeast stored for over 6 years. It does take a stepped starter and about a week though.

 

[Robert65]

Introducing the boiled and cooled water, as in the obsolete practice of rinsing, is detrimental to the yeast. It raises pH, providing an environment amenable to bacterial infection; increases the difference in osmotic pressure on the cells, leading to physical damage; and introduces oxygen. This last factor causes yeast, which has completed its metabolic cycle, built up certain reserves, and is awaiting the signal to begin another ordered cycle, to wake up and expend those reserves, only to find no food to consume, thus disrupting their metabolic cycle and possibly leading to starvation and autolysis; at the least, they will lack the resources for a healthy and ordered fermentation when finally pitched. Culture yeast has lost the genetic ability to adapt to variable opportunities, depending on a predictable cycle of conditions we provide for them. Meanwhile, wild yeast and other microorganisms retain the ability to rapidly adapt and change their metabolic cycles, consuming food whenever possible without being committed to a fixed schedule.

Thus, yeast rinsing depletes our culture yeast, physically damages it, and in several ways provides ideal conditions for infecting organisms to outcompete it.

Yeast should always be stored under the beer it has just made, taking care not to introduce oxygen during the transfer, and should only be rinsed -- in the highly unlikely event this should ever be required at all -- or otherwise exposed to oxygen or any change in environment immediately before pitching.

For the homebrewer, the most effective method is to leave enough beer in the fermenter to gently swirl up a slurry, and to carefully pour this into a sanitized container. Mason jars are ideal. Buy your wife some new ones.

 

[ISS IT Guy]

I don't get this. You didn't like sanitizing jars.. Now you boil then chill water, sanitize the funnel.. Then what? You still need a jar or something to keep the yeast in and you have to sanitize that. It seems like you made a lot of extra work to save a little space.

When I buy liquid yeast, I make a starter that is larger than needed for the recipe coming up. I have 20 ml vials. I add 5 ml yeast, 5 ml glycerin and 10 ml water to the vial. I shake that up and put it in the refrigerator over night. The next day I shake it up again and freeze the 4 vials I have filled. I have about 12 varieties of yeast in the frozen yeast bank and have resurrected yeast stored for over 6 years. It does take a stepped starter and about a week though.

Well, for the mason jar method I need to used sanitized, cooled boiled water anyway, so that step is involved regardless. The sanitation is easier because I don't have to deal with the annoyance of the lids, screw tops, and jars. All I need to do is sanitize the separatory funnel, one Erlenmeyer flask, and a funnel to pour the carboy into.

And the main purpose of me switching to this method is that I like the yeast I get out of it. It has looked a lot cleaner than my results when using mason jars, since the separatory flask helps with the stratification and the removal method is easy by just turning the stopcock and letting it flow into a flask. If I had a Catalyst fermentor, this process might not be necessary.

I've considered doing starters to increase my yeast supply (because the whole purpose of me doing this is saving $$$) but I currently don't have large enough flasks / a stir plate. Plus, I brew 3 gallon batches using BIAB. Once I step up to 5+ gallon batches, I may pursue that route as I'll likely need to use starters for my brews anyway.

Thanks for sharing your method! I hadn't heard of that particular one before.

 

[kh54s10]

Well, for the mason jar method I need to used sanitized, cooled boiled water anyway, so that step is involved regardless. The sanitation is easier because I don't have to deal with the annoyance of the lids, screw tops, and jars. All I need to do is sanitize the separatory funnel, one Erlenmeyer flask, and a funnel to pour the carboy into.

And the main purpose of me switching to this method is that I like the yeast I get out of it. It has looked a lot cleaner than my results when using mason jars, since the separatory flask helps with the stratification and the removal method is easy by just turning the stopcock and letting it flow into a flask. If I had a Catalyst fermentor, this process might not be necessary.

I've considered doing starters to increase my yeast supply (because the whole purpose of me doing this is saving $$$) but I currently don't have large enough flasks / a stir plate. Plus, I brew 3 gallon batches using BIAB. Once I step up to 5+ gallon batches, I may pursue that route as I'll likely need to use starters for my brews anyway.

Thanks for sharing your method! I hadn't heard of that particular one before.

See the post above your reply. There is no need for boiled and cooled water. Sanitation is not much different. You can save the yeast under less beer. I typically get only one quart jar of slurry. I don't care about how clean the yeast is. In fact I tried the washing and could never separate the yeast from the trub anyway. The funnel thing may be different. You still have to sanitize the funnel flask and everything else, so little savings there.

You don't need a larger flask or a stirplate. The current method that is increasing in popularity is to shake up a starter in a large vessel really well then just leave it. You could do the same with a little slurry instead of new yeast.

Depending on the starting gravity of your 3 gallon batches you might be needing starters anyway.

 

[brew703]

I used to harvest yeast and store in mason jars. Got tired of the wife complaining of the space the jars took up.

Ordered a set of 50ml plastic vials from Amazon. When the starter is finished, I immediately take off the stir plate (while yeast is still in suspension) and fill two vials up to the top, cap and into the fridge. The yeast will settle to the bottom. Now when i make a starter, I simply decant the vials to about half, swirl/shake and add that to the starter. Repeat the process.

Has worked great for me and have been doing it this way for about 2 years now.

 

[kh54s10]

I used to harvest yeast and store in mason jars. Got tired of the wife complaining of the space the jars took up.

Ordered a set of 50ml plastic vials from Amazon. When the starter is finished, I immediately take off the stir plate (while yeast is still in suspension) and fill two vials up to the top, cap and into the fridge. The yeast will settle to the bottom. Now when i make a starter, I simply decant the vials to about half, swirl/shake and add that to the starter. Repeat the process.

Has worked great for me and have been doing it this way for about 2 years now.

Nice. If you calculate a starter to double the amount of yeast and save that it would be the same as a new package. Actually known amount of additional yeast captured can then be calculated for a new starter.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I used to harvest yeast and store in mason jars. Got tired of the wife complaining of the space the jars took up.

Ordered a set of 50ml plastic vials from Amazon. When the starter is finished, I immediately take off the stir plate (while yeast is still in suspension) and fill two vials up to the top, cap and into the fridge. The yeast will settle to the bottom. Now when i make a starter, I simply decant the vials to about half, swirl/shake and add that to the starter. Repeat the process.

Has worked great for me and have been doing it this way for about 2 years now.

I've also been doing that way for years. Cheers

 

[ISS IT Guy]

Introducing the boiled and cooled water, as in the obsolete practice of rinsing, is detrimental to the yeast. It raises pH, providing an environment amenable to bacterial infection; increases the difference in osmotic pressure on the cells, leading to physical damage; and introduces oxygen. This last factor causes yeast, which has completed its metabolic cycle, built up certain reserves, and is awaiting the signal to begin another ordered cycle, to wake up and expend those reserves, only to find no food to consume, thus disrupting their metabolic cycle and possibly leading to starvation and autolysis; at the least, they will lack the resources for a healthy and ordered fermentation when finally pitched. Culture yeast has lost the genetic ability to adapt to variable opportunities, depending on a predictable cycle of conditions we provide for them. Meanwhile, wild yeast and other microorganisms retain the ability to rapidly adapt and change their metabolic cycles, consuming food whenever possible without being committed to a fixed schedule.

Thus, yeast rinsing depletes our culture yeast, physically damages it, and in several ways provides ideal conditions for infecting organisms to outcompete it.

Yeast should always be stored under the beer it has just made, taking care not to introduce oxygen during the transfer, and should only be rinsed -- in the highly unlikely event this should ever be required at all -- or otherwise exposed to oxygen or any change in environment immediately before pitching.

For the homebrewer, the most effective method is to leave enough beer in the fermenter to gently swirl up a slurry, and to carefully pour this into a sanitized container. Mason jars are ideal. Buy your wife some new ones.

Copy all on the potential yeast damage. I used the harvesting / ranching method directly out of Palmer's book. If that process is damaging and now not recommended, that's news to me. I appreciate your inputs, nonetheless!

 

[kh54s10]

Copy all on the potential yeast damage. I used the harvesting / ranching method directly out of Palmer's book. If that process is damaging and now not recommended, that's news to me. I appreciate your inputs, nonetheless!

The knowledge of brewing is constantly changing. The latest edition of How to Brew is about 2 1/2 years old now. Some things will change dramatically while other things - not so much.

 

[Robert65]

Much of the information printed in homebrew books is just parroted misinformation, carried over from one homebrew "authority" to another for decades, much of which was already out of date or just plain false when it first entered the homebrew canon. Yeast rinsing was a practice widely accepted in commercial practice in the 19th century, when it was felt that a bath of cold, clear water would "purify" anything, from the soul to yeast -- even though microbiologically pure yeast cultures, and the means of maintaining them, were already becoming better understood. The professional brewing literature has long since cataloged the detriments of exposing yeast to oxygen, water, or other media, and more recently, genetic studies have filled out some further reasons why culture yeast is far more vulnerable than infecting organisms. Today, standard commercial practice calls for directly transferring yeast from the cone of the fermenter to either a purged brink, or directly to the cone of another fermenter ready to be filled, avoiding any contact with water or oxygen. While the homebrewer attempting to approximate this best practice will inevitably transfer some trub and/or dead yeast cells, this should be of no concern. Non-yeast material cannot propagate, and so will have no deleterious effect on the next brew. Quite the opposite of organisms which might be introduced or favored by improper handling. If you are concerned about the amount of non-yeast material in your slurry, just pitch a larger volume of slurry to compensate.

 

[CharlieW]

I'd decant down to the 200 ml mark and pitch. Cheers

+1
Looks like this. Sometimes more slurry in bottom than these two but these both have plenty:
View attachment 656078

I agree with Blazin regarding the decanting and pitching.

My mason jars of yeast look to be about the same volume and I have decanted a little of the wort and pitched. Never had a problem yet.

 

[Day-Day]

I just overbuild my starters and save yeast from that to make a new starter.

Step 1) Buy yeast
Step 2) Overbuild starter (if I need a 1.5L starter, I build a 2L starter and save 500ml)
Step 3) Store saved starter in the fridge
Step 4) Pull saved yeast out of fridge... make new starter (overbuild again)

Depending on how the yeast react I will do this upto 4 times... then buy new yeast. Even if you only overbuild once... you're cutting your yeast cost in half.

I used to harvest yeast but it's such a painful process for me (personally), I find the above method easier and less room for error.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[hottpeper13]

Day-Day, only 4 times? I just bought a new pack of 2565 (house yeast) because the over build starter was 2 years old. I'll repitch up to 3-4 times then make a new starter, so maybe 4 starters a year. I do use other yeast also.

 

[Day-Day]

Day-Day, only 4 times? I just bought a new pack of 2565 (house yeast) because the over build starter was 2 years old. I'll repitch up to 3-4 times then make a new starter, so maybe 4 starters a year. I do use other yeast also.

I know I could stretch it way further... which I have and do. I just like knowing that I'm starting from clean yeast every so often... it's really just a mental thing... and an arbitrary number (4) at that.

Between my 3-4 favorite/house yeasts... I'm still only buying yeast a few times year... so my yeast costs are very...very low.

Maybe I'll increase that arbitrary number just for fun and more savings !!!

 

[bracconiere]

no body mentioned the fancy ring stand! this is my 2x6 stand.....

edit: and before you say it's dirty, i use for making esters to add to my beer, and their hard to clean...

 

[seatazzz]

*watching the show with a nice lager* Everybody is going to have their own process and do what works for them. If I overcomplicate things I tend to lose sight of the end goal, so I try to keep it simple. Others can disagree, or agree, or sit back and watch. It's fun to see what other people do for yeast. It's probably close to the oldest organism on our planet; despite humans breeding, mutating, and just messing with it; and it has survived, splendidly. If you treat yeast right, they'll treat you (and your beer) right, sometimes for multiple generations. The only thing that hasn't worked well for me is re-pitching directly onto a yeast cake; overpitching to that extreme has created some weird esters depending on the wort I was repitching on, not to mention dead and/or hydrolysed yeast. I'll keep doing what I'm doing until I make my millions and can afford to spend $$ on multiple packs of yeast every two weeks or so.

 

[bracconiere]

It's probably close to the oldest organism on our planet;

i've wanted to leave a batch next to an open window and see what i get.....

 

[seatazzz]

i've wanted to leave a batch next to an open window and see what i get.....

Possibly something mutated to the point that it consumes chihuahas, and farts mustard gas and pees plutonium. I see a new horror genre in our future....yes I've been drinking.

 

[bracconiere]

Possibly something mutated to the point that it consumes chihuahas, and farts mustard gas and pees plutonium. I see a new horror genre in our future....yes I've been drinking.

lol, i think i'd just be making a brett....not sure...but you're right, maybe it'd be a beer that poured itself down my throat for me!