How do you harvest your yeast?

Yeast cake...there is plenty of info out there on washing yeast that is very helpful. But you don't The easiest way to harvest yeast though is to just make a bigger starter than you'll need for your current batch and keep part of it to use to create another starter for future brews.

Also, depending on the yeast, I'll add the next batch directly onto the old yeast cake many times, if I'm only looking for a few generations out of the yeast. I will go ahead and do it all in one day...keg previous batch and brew next batch to add onto the yeast cake immediately.

 

I harvest from the starter right before I add the balance to the fermenter. I've been happy with this technique and I feel there is much less chance of picking up unwanted microbes in a 1 or 2 day starter vs a 3 week primary...I don't wash yeast...

 

After racking from primary I loosen the yeast cake with a bit of RO water and pour into a sanitized gallon jug. I then cold crash a day or two and on brew day I bring the yeast up to room temp, pour off most of the top liquid, and swirl the rest to dump into the next batch. Works real well as long as you're consistent with your brew schedule and there isn't much time between batches.

 

I'll top crop if I can - say if I'm brewing within a few days - otherwise I'll just save some slurry in jars

 

I use the yeast cake. I try to get about three or four batches out of one cake. I plan my brews so I start with something relatively low in abv, like a pale ale, and ramp up to high abv stuff like a DIPA or a RIS. I like having the extra yeast for the large beers anyway.

 

I use the yeast cake after fermentation is complete (2 weeks) with sterile water. I am also keeping a few ml of slurry from each starter review if something goes wrong. I only use 1 pure strain and a 3 strain blend so I am not trying to keep specialties.

 

how do people harvest/isolate yeast from fruit in their backyard?

 

I make a 1 liter starter around 1.035-1.040 with DME and using a Star San spray I sterilize my hands, grab the fruit/flower straight off the plant and put it in the starter. After that, it's a waiting game to see what grows.

 

In theory you could have dozens of strains on that one piece of fruit?

 

Yep...if you want to isolate strains, then you'll have to plate them out on a petri dish and then seperate strains from there. If you haven't checked out Bootleg Biology, it's a good starting place for people that don't have a microbiology lab handy. Bootleg sells a kit to wrangle wild yeast, but you may have most of what you need already. Their methods/procedures are outlined on their website as well.

I've harvested wild yeast from wild blackberries in my front yard and watermelons I planted as well. I use both to ferment other beverages than beer (scared to mention meads and ciders that my post may be deleted by an admin) and have been more than satisfied with the micro-menagerie produced brews compared to traditional standard yeast.

 

I work with buckets. I rack and leave a little beer on top of the yeast cake. I sanitize a spoon and scrape the high krausen ring and slap that down into the cake. I swirl a few times and pour from a sanitized funnel into a ball jar. I try to make sure the jar is mostly full. I use this yeast within 6 weeks or I make a starter.

I'm careful when I use a lot of hop or I use a smoked beer. I'll do another similar beer if I think there's going to be a strong flavor left behind.

 

I pretty much do what suavo said. Harvest from the starter before pitching. That way I can brew what I want, I don't have to worry about going from a IIPA to a bitter... I just create the appropriate sized starter from the yeast I want.

 

Place me in the camp with parsing out some of my oversized starter. My first use of a new yeast, I'll end up with (2) jars of fresh, clean yeast to grow up into starters later. I think that keeps me closer to 'clean' yeast without as much mutation. I keep (2) jars in case something goes wrong with one.

 

It's still kind of a guessing game, but there's a 'slurry' option in most yeast calculators out there. 50 mL of dense slurry will get you a good cake after doing a starter, but you sometimes have to wait for this to separate out from the hop trub

 

I always just make a really big starter at the beginning then put it in a bunch of jars and vials after pitching.