What Have I Been Waiting For? - Yeast Harvesting

[rich]

Holy schit batman. What have I been waiting for?

I brewed an ESB today, and pitched my first yeast harvest. I harvested it from an IPA I racked to secondary friday. I pitched about a cup of the slurry for fear of over-pitching.This bad dad was showing activity within 45 minutes.

All I can think about is the six bucks I didn't spend on a new White Labs vial.

Fuck yeah, I love this hobby!

[Bugeater]

Sometimes I plan my brew schedule so I am brewing the same day I rack the previous beer. When I do that, I don't even bother to clean the carboy, I siphon the new wort right on to the yeast cake. Don't try this without a blowoff tube! I get really quick violent starts and hit my target FG everytime. I figure that if the carboy was sanitary enough for the beer I just racked out of it, it is still sanitary enough for the new wort. Pouring the yeast slurry out into another container, cleaning the carboy and then pouring the yeast back just adds more chance for contamination. Been doing this off and on for a couple years with never any problems.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[ionia_ales]

I love yeast harvesting..

along with this post from my little blog..
ioniaales/harvesting yeast

I am happy I have an inch thich slurry of 3787 in a mason jar, saved from some belg. I did. I have a BWine that might not have had enough happy yeasts to carb fully. I might add a bit of priming solution to a bit of the yeast and open up and re-cap all the bottles. I think it wil be a bitch, but a 11% BW that's flat also sucks.[/url]