Harvesting Heady!

Congrats, it sounds like you have graduated from harvesting to making step-starters. Here's some guidelines that may help in estimating your cell count: http://www.wyeastlab.com/com-yeast-harvest.cfm

Getting an accurate cell count is pretty iffy . . . but these guidelines give you a starting point. It's pretty easy to measure the quantity of slurry (I store in a Mason jar with ml markings) and from there you have something to work with. From that point yeastcalc or mrmalty calculator should give you good guidance. Remember, the inoculation ratio is the important criteria (millions of cells/ml) rather than strict starter size.

Seeing all this Conan being produced is making my mouth water.

 

I had cold-creashed about 2 weeks ago with the intent to use it, and never did. Just restarted a starter today for brewing Tuesday. Here's a video showing some active Conan, including the foam layer others have noticed:

 

Best I can tell your math is all correct. But I see you using the generic ratio of 0.75 million of cells/ml for ale. For a 1.087 gravity ale you probably want at least 1.00 million of cells/ml which will push your requirement over 300 ml. That's starting to be a lot of yeast.

The tricky part is it is difficult to know the cell density of your slurry. You are using the 1.2 billion/ml as suggested by Wyeast . . . if you consult Yeast they say the density is somewhere between 1 - 3 billion/ml. These are some big swings. I would probably stick with the 1.2 figure to be conservative.

Another technique to get up to 300 billion+ cells may be to make an intermediate gravity beer (1.050'ish) which will give you ~600 billion cells in the yeast cake. Essentially you are using your primary to replace your starter flask.

A couple of suggestions when you get ready to pitch the Big 'Un: You really should inject oxygen, it's just not possible to get enough O2 using air. Even if you have to steal a welder's rig I would do this. Also, with a gravity this high, a second injection of O2 is called for 12 -18 hours into fermentation. This is to fuel the yeast after the first cell division. According to Yeast this will speed up fermentation and actually reduce diacetyl and actaldehyde. As fermentation completes you want to raise the temp to keep the yeast happy.

FTR, a lot of what I posted is from Wyeat and White Labs. I have made starters in the 300 billion range before (successfully) but my highest gravity beer has been 1.076. I will be anxious to hear your results. BTW, after you rack the Big 'Un you will probably have over 1 trillion Conan cells (slightly stressed but harvestable). I'm guessing you will have a lot more friends.

 

It will blow bubbles, but your yeast will be gasping. The maximum level of oxygen you can reach with air is 8 ppm. Your Big 'Un will need something around 12-14 ppm (twice). Just about any type oxygen cylinder can be pressed into service. Ideally it will have a barb output to connect to your tubing/stone. If you can't find a O2 tank at a hardware store or welders outlet, I would check out a local nursing home or ER (really) as they always have oxygen available. The quantity you will use is negligible and just tell 'em you only need it for a day and will swap for some Conan beer. You've come this far . . . gotta push to the finish. Flag over an ambulance right before you pitch if you have to.

 

Shit. Better than nothing, but you can do it faster with less foam by shaking. You need pure O2 if you to do better than agitation.

 

. . . and?

 

Those aquarium pumps break super fast. I tried one out for a session beer (to avoid over oxygenation) and it broke after using it for 10 minutes... went right back to pure O2.

 

I haven't been back to the brewhouse yet to check on it, but the starter was rocking when i coldcrashed before decanting off what I could, so i'm pretty confident it should be doing super. i'll update when i make it to the bh.

 

Ok, a question.

What's the gig with Conan? I mean, heady is a good IPA with(bear with me, I've only had it a few times) clean yeast profile. What's so special about a high attenuation clean American yeast?

 

I don't really know. But that's why I'm doing it...to find out if the yeast is all the difference as kimmich claims.

 

From what I hear, it's peaches.

 

Been planning on testing that, splitting a batch of IPA or blonde (something less obtrusive) and fermenting with Conan and WLP090. Hopefully I can get some idea of what it actually adds to the beer. I love Heady, but am skeptical of the tropical fruit & peach esters that everyone picks up from Heady (I don't think I could discriminate tropical/peach hop derived aroma/flavor from tropical/peach esters). But hey, if it really does add some tropical/peach flavors, attenuates well and accentuates hop flavor/aroma, then I'll just keep propagating a culture (Thanks veganbrewer) for hoppy stuff.

 

Definitely looking forward to trying to harvest yeast from some Heady later this year. I think I'm going to use it for an all Galaxy IPA (though some Centennial may sneak into the dry hop).

 

Stepped Conan up with ~1000 ml of 1.040 wort, let it go for two more days, then cold crashed for about 36 hours.

On Friday I brewed an APA with an OG of 1.053 hopped with Simcoe and Mosaic. I made a pale ale nearly identical to this very recently and used 1056. Sample was rather bitter, with citrusy and cat pissy aromas abound. Basically the same as my previous notes.

I pitched Conan around midnight, it was ~200 ml of fairly thick slurry. I checked it around 6:30 am Saturday and it was raging, thick krausen and the blowoff was thumping so hard and fast it sounded like a machine gun. I kept it at around 66-68 degrees. It was steady all through yesterday and even when I went to bed last night. I awoke to complete silence and falling krausen this morning. Took a sample and it is currently at 1.010. It smelled like fresh tropical fruit and was absolutely amazing. A lot of citrus/tropical fruit and yes, peaches.

I am very eager to see how this one turns out.... it is very different from the version I made with 1056. It's much more fruity and juicier. Last version smelled more like bright citrus hops and was very crisp, this is just far more tropical in both the taste and aroma.

Going to wash and save some Conan to try a few different things.... definitely intrigued and eager to use it many more times to see what it can do.

 

Haven't posted an update in a while...We didn't get much of a chance to check on the ipa til about a week ago. We overboiled (more likely undersparged) a little with about 4.25 gallons, and the SG was at 1.075, whereas it was supposed to be 1.064. I didn't do an exact measure of the yeast I had when I pitched, but I suspect I might have been a little light on the cell count. Fermentation had stalled out at 1.020 when we checked it. We gave it a good stir and crossed our fingers it would finish. I made another starter with dregs from 2 HT two days ago and pitched it yesterday, hoping to finish it up. It should be noted that the flavor was markedly better after an additional week on the yeast. I'm gonna go back Sunday to check again and hopefully dry-hop if by some miracle it finishes. Thoughts? What would you have done differently?