Yeast harvest gone wring?

[Mobeers]

So I brewed a popular pale ale citrus beer found on this forum. After Using a vial of California ale yeast I thought I would harvest some and wash it. Question is, is it worth keeping when it looks like barf. It really does but is just a mixture of cascade hops. Will the hops make it unusable





any pros or cons?

 

[TANSTAAFB]

You really want to harvest from low gravity, low hop beers and you want to keep as much trub out of the beer as possible. The hop oils will coat the yeast cells and inhibit viability, health, and growth. You will need to wash this multiple times to separate the hop particles and trub from the yeast. It will work and the yeast will probably be fine, just not ideal conditions.

 

[Mobeers]

Ok, maybe I'll just dump it and get it from a cleaner sample next time. Thanks

 

[TANSTAAFB]

What did it look like after it settled out? I would wash it a couple of times and see what happens. If you are OK dumping it anyway you have nothing to lose using this batch to refine your technique.

 

[Bassaholic]

I had a similar experience the other day with my first time washing. I had quite a bit of grub and I dry hopped with 2 oz and didn't use a bag. Mine settled out a bit but there's barely a noticeable layer of yeast. To rewash it should I just decant the liquid, combine everything and add fresh boiled then cooled water? Ill attach I picture so you can see what it settled to.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Mine settled out a bit but there's barely a noticeable layer of yeast. To rewash it should I just decant the liquid, combine everything and add fresh boiled then cooled water?

Yep. The idea is that what settles first is trub--dead yeast, hop particles, proteins, etc. and the viable yeast is still in suspension. So shake it up and let it settle for 20-30 minutes then pour off the cloudy liquid leaving behind as much of the crap on the bottom as possible. Top off with boiled and cooled water and repeat as many times as you feel like to get a fairly clean sample. There will always be a little trub on the bottom with a thinner, creamy white layer on top that is your Yeastie Beasties.