Yeast Harvesting

[seanhagerty]

I was listening to a past show and heard a discussion about some one harversting yeast from what blows out of their blow off tube.

Any one got any info on that? Is it a good idea?

How do they do it?

[bub]

sounds like too large a possibility for contamination for me
BUB

[Henning1966]

Hey Push says thats not what you say at night when he gives you your daily protein shake BUB.

[beer_bear]

Blow off tube of malted man sauce. Nice.

[jamilz]

It depends on a lot of factors. The biggest concern is that the yeast that go out the blow off tube are usually the most flocculent. (The yeast flocculate or clump and then the CO2 carries them to the top. After the CO2 stops, the flocs fall down to the bottom.)

If you only gather the most flocculent yeast, you can end up with a pitch that won't attenuate the beer completely.

[BigBadBrad]

I tried this once as an experiment. I made sure all my blowoff stuff was well sanitized. I boiled some water in my 1L flask and let it cool. I put the blowoff tube into the flask and covered the opening with foil. I got a good amount of yeast in the flask and pitched it into my next batch. I believe I was using WLP001 or WLP007. The results of the second batch were fine, but nothing special. I find it much easier to use Jamil's method of sterilized water and Nalgene bottles for repitching.

Brad

[seanhagerty]

Thanks All

Sean