I posted this in the conan thread but I did not get any responses to my question. It really isn't specific to conan yeast so I thought I would throw it out to the general yeast forum to see if anyone can provide input.
So I harvested some conan from a can I bought from the brewery around April. I built up a starter and slanted the yeast. Around a month later, I built up a starter from that slant. My process for building starters is starting with 10ml, then around 100ml, then around 1000ml, then up to 5000ml (for a 12 gallon batch). Each time, I pour the entire previous starter into the next. At the very end, I cold crash the starter for around 8 hours and pour off the starter "beer". The batch of heady I made cleared up pretty quick. I also do recall the real heady clearing up within a month or so now that I think about it. Still got all the flavor and aroma notes usually discussed with conan yeast but really clear beer.
I went back up to VT and grabbed a fresh heady case sometime around August. I hadn't thought too much about it but I was noticing the heady was maintaining the cloudliness longer (still cloudy to this day). So I thought I should try to grab some of this new conan because it is noticeably different. So I left a can in the fridge overnight. I poured off most of the heady and dumped the last 1/10 of the can in the flask along with 1.040 wort. Here is my thought: Aside the fact that this is obviously a different generation, there may be something going on that could explain the differences in flocculation over time. It would make sense that while the yeast cells are more and less the same, there may be minor differences within a particular generation or general yeast population. The more flocculent bunch tend to not hang around and drop out while the ones that are less flocculent just chill out in suspension. Now, by letting the can sit still for a long time and slowly pouring off the majority of the fluid wouldn't you be concentrating the more flocculent yeast in your starter? You then build this up and then pour off the top yet again right before pitching as I described above in my starter process (even worse if you cold crash in between starter steps). So is it possible that I may be better off grabbing the beer from the top of the can and not pouring off the starter before pitching (although the thought of this makes me cringe for some reason). Is any of this making sense?
Now I am not a microbiologist or anything and I am merely asking the question to see if this theory is plausible. Thanks for the input.
So I harvested some conan from a can I bought from the brewery around April. I built up a starter and slanted the yeast. Around a month later, I built up a starter from that slant. My process for building starters is starting with 10ml, then around 100ml, then around 1000ml, then up to 5000ml (for a 12 gallon batch). Each time, I pour the entire previous starter into the next. At the very end, I cold crash the starter for around 8 hours and pour off the starter "beer". The batch of heady I made cleared up pretty quick. I also do recall the real heady clearing up within a month or so now that I think about it. Still got all the flavor and aroma notes usually discussed with conan yeast but really clear beer.
I went back up to VT and grabbed a fresh heady case sometime around August. I hadn't thought too much about it but I was noticing the heady was maintaining the cloudliness longer (still cloudy to this day). So I thought I should try to grab some of this new conan because it is noticeably different. So I left a can in the fridge overnight. I poured off most of the heady and dumped the last 1/10 of the can in the flask along with 1.040 wort. Here is my thought: Aside the fact that this is obviously a different generation, there may be something going on that could explain the differences in flocculation over time. It would make sense that while the yeast cells are more and less the same, there may be minor differences within a particular generation or general yeast population. The more flocculent bunch tend to not hang around and drop out while the ones that are less flocculent just chill out in suspension. Now, by letting the can sit still for a long time and slowly pouring off the majority of the fluid wouldn't you be concentrating the more flocculent yeast in your starter? You then build this up and then pour off the top yet again right before pitching as I described above in my starter process (even worse if you cold crash in between starter steps). So is it possible that I may be better off grabbing the beer from the top of the can and not pouring off the starter before pitching (although the thought of this makes me cringe for some reason). Is any of this making sense?
Now I am not a microbiologist or anything and I am merely asking the question to see if this theory is plausible. Thanks for the input.
