Best Way To Harvest Yeast

[Rick_UK]

Ay up Chaps

I have finally invested in a big bag of malt so am not planning any trips to my local HBS for a while. I only bought a couple of sachets of yeast as I'm dubious about storing it for too long but did buy a bag of DME with a view to harvesting yeast used in current ales. I mainly brew English ales and stouts, with the occasional Belgian Abbey or Bavarian Weiss. IN the past I have had some success harvesting from the sediment in bottes.

Thinking ahead I'm now wondering if it would be better to harvest the yeast from the FV by skimming or rinsing the trub.

Any advice much appreciated.

Rick

[Goulders]

Look in the Yeast section on the forum index HERE, all your answers will be there, including rinsing yeast etc.

[orlando]

White & Zainasheff recommend top cropping ale yeasts. Avoid the stuff in the first 24 hours, best to skim this off as it will contain more dead cells and trub than yeast harvested on day 2 or 3, it will also contain a greater proportion of highly flocculent yeast that can lead to poor attenuation. Day 2-3 yeast is the most desirable because it is at its peak of viability and vitality and relatively free from trub.

Bottom cropping is the alternative but that is a little more involved (rinsing & washing come into the picture). Just make sure everything is spotlessly clean and as close to sterile as you can get it before touching the yeast. Use a wide mouthed vessel to collect in and make sure you do not seal it tight, a couple of screw threads is fine. The sooner you repitch the better but stored at 1-2c for a week is fine. After a month viability is close to 50%. Lager strains are a little more difficult, I understand but have no experience of them.

[darkonnis]

Lager strains seem to last a lot longer as they're used to the much colder temps, atleast thats my understanding of what "yeast" says.
For a home brewer it's likely easier to bottom crop after fermentation is over and just rinse the yeast. Wolfie over in the yeast section has done a few very good posts on how to do it

[Rick_UK]

Thanks for the replies chaps. I only tend to brew once a month or so, so would I be better to recapture from bottles if it has to be reused within a week or so?

[Skittlebrau]

I usually just use a Starsanned spoon to collect the slurry from the bottom of the FV after transferring the beer to secondary. I spoon it into a Starsanned jam jar and keep in the fridge, before repitching according to the Mr. Malty pitching rate calculator.