I am trying to harvest some yeast from a Sierra Nevada pale ale. I collected the yeast from 4 beers and added that to a small starter. 10 grams of dme to 100 ml of water. My main question is can I put this on the stir plate now or should I let it ferment for a few days and add it to a bigger starter? I plan to pitch the yeast in a week. Thanks in advance.
Ideally until the yeast becomes active, creates a mini-krausen, and it falls. Then step to a larger starter. Trouble is, in a 100 ml quantity, this may happen quickly and it's possible to miss it. If nothing is noticed after 2-3 days I would step it up another 100 ml. You really want a 1.020 wort for yeast being harvested. It's still possible to miss the krausen in a 200 ml sample. If you notice a tan slurry building up (with the stir plate off) you are probably okay. But I have made the third step before I noticed any real growth. I plan to pitch the yeast in a week. This may be optimistic. I've had it take over a week to get growth at the 500 ml level (three steps). Others have posted two weeks to get activity. Then the larger starters are still required to get the proper quantity. Sometimes it seems like we are working for the yeast. Here's a couple of pretty good reads that have helped me: http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.php http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php
harvesting the Chico strain seems to me to be a hell of a lot more trouble than it is worth. this yeast is readily available (US 05 dry or 1056 liquid). considering the time and cost to harvest, I think you could just as easily use either the dry or liquid and still be ahead. plus SN doesn't give you a lot of slurry to start with. i'm not against harvesting yeast, but this instance just doesn't add up to me. US05 is a great dry yeast btw. Cheers.
plus there's the risk of infection, the question regarding the strength/viability of the yeast, blah blah blah. i only harvest wild yeasties because they're rare. spend the $5-10 to get fresh, healthy yeast
