Yeast Harvest

[msjulian]

I got to thinking this morning as I was waiting for my 800ml of yeast slurry back up to room temp... why not grab a vials worth of fresh yeast?? I have built this pile of yeast up from a single dose of Wyeast 3787 in two steps. First step was in a 2000ml 1.040 wort and then added to a 3000ml 1.040 wort. Then cold crashed and decanted. This should yield aprox 500 - 600 billion cells (according to all the calculators out there). I am looking for aprox 400 - 500 billion for my 1.089 Belgian Quad. So as I am staring at this really clean, really fresh yeast I thought why go through all the hassle of rinsing the yeast from the trub after fermentation? Why not start building starters just a little larger then needed and pour a vial off before pitching?

Using the Mr Malty calculator http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html or the calculator on Brewers Friend http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitc ... alculator/ (I am starting to really like the Brewers Friend calculator) just calculate the starter to give you an extra 50-100 billion cells and decant off a vial before pitching. It will cost you another .25 pounds of DME but I think you should end up with yeast that is much healthier and cleaner then harvesting from the fermentor (unless you are lucky enough to have a conical fermentor).

Yeast collected from starter to be used for bottle conditioning Belgian Quad..

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[sirgiovanni]

I do that all the time. The only recommendation I have is to watch the volume of the second starter. Yeast 'possibly' learn growth patterns and so most experts say to do a higher volume ratio to ensure your culture multiply well in the fermenter. I only start to worry about those things when making vials. Then when the last vial is used, I repopulate for new vials with a fresh purchased vial if available. For some ome yeast, it is easier or only possible to use the last vial for new ones.

[Michael Erwin]

My brother makes a starter from his WL vial and splits it into five or six new vials and stores them until needed, using a starter, of course.

The advantage is - his yeast is really clean when he gets ready to pitch.

The disadvantage is - my experience is that 3rd and 4th generations are really kick-ass in terms of performance and flavor. With this, you get second generation every time.