Yeast harvesting

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jmc21986

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So I'm going to transfer my sierra Nevada american pale ale clone to the secondary vessel. I've heard of people harvesting from the primary fermenter and some people doing from the secondary. What is best? Thanks
 
First off, why are you transferring to secondary? Not to say there aren't good reasons, but you should at least know WHY you're doing it, and what you hope to accomplish.

Secondly, it's better to harvest the yeast from the primary, for sure. That's where most of the yeast is! When you transfer to another fermenter, there's still some yeast in suspension, but it's the cells most resistent to flocc'ing out. Given time, a few more of them will settle out (in the secondary fermenter), but lots of them will still stay in suspension (which is why you don't usually need to add more yeast when bottling).
 
Or you could spend just a little bit more $$$ (I spend ~$0.51) to make a slightly larger starter so that the extra can be saved without the mess and hassle of harvesting.

There's no trub, there's nothing to flavor it, no hops, nothing. And it stands to reason, though I don't know it to be true, but that it would be less likely to mutate, especially since it's such a low ABV "beer" with nothing in it.

I generally make myself a 1 qt starter and use 1/4 lb of DME. So for the extra I use an additional pint and 1/8 lb of DME.

After the 24 hrs or so is up, and I take my portion of yeast for my beer, I set the flask back in the cabinet for about 6 more days to finish up, and then store it in a jar, though I probably ought to cold crash it, decant, and then save the yeast in boiled water.
 
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