yeast harvesting

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Yes you can harvest yeast, there are lots of really informative threads about it here as well as freezing or storing it.

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There's really no difference between liquid yeast and re-hydrated dry yeast after they've been used in fermentation, so yes, you can top-crop or bottom-wash dry yeast. Question is why would you? Dry yeast is typically cheap enough not to be worth the bother and risk of contamination.
 
Yeast is cheap, but if you are making say 20 gallons of Apfelwein why re-pitch new yeast when the yeast cake is perfectly good?
 
msa8967 said:
I have heard that the first or second washing of yeast may actually be better than the first time pitching the same strain. Wonder if this applies to dry yeast as well?

The premis is that the yeast has sat on the shelf too long and lost some viability. If you make a starter it's going to be just as viable if not better if pitched at high Krausen vs a second gen. That is a few weeks from having a fuel source
 
On the packet of dry yeast are directions to rehydrate it. It would be REAL easy to propagate plenty of yeast at that time for slants/vials and still pitch the rest of the yeast into your brew. IMO the closer to 1st gen you are the better in almost all instances.
 
I have a few mason jars of Notty in the fridge from a pale ale I recently brewed. Good thing I had it since it saved me a few bucks when I had to pitch it into a stuck Nut Brown over the weekend.
 
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