Yeast Harvest

[porter1974]

I am using my grainfather conical fermenter for the first time and wanted to harvest some yeast just because I can!

I used wlp 005. It’s 5 days since I pitched and the beer is at 1.012. That’s my projected FG but it’s still slightly bubbling so I think it will go a bit lower.

Fermentation was carried out at 68 degrees. I just increased the temp to 69.

Is the stuff I collected spent yeast, active yeast, yeast waste?

 

[okiedog]

Wait. You didn't mention when or how you collected the yeast. Did you rack to secondary and recover the slurry from the primary? It is called slurry, unless you went thru the process of cleaning and separating it from the trub. Slurry from a healthy ferment should contain plenty of healthy, live yeast.

 

[porter1974]

I harvested the yeast via a port in the bottem of my conical fermenter.

It smells incredible. Very malty.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Is the stuff I collected spent yeast, active yeast, yeast waste?

It is hard to say just looking at the bubbles on the top. I don't use a conical, but my understanding is that people will often pull off the layer of trub that settles...then as fermentation winds down pull off a layer that has lots of yeast. You could transfer this to a clear canning jar and see how it settles out.

 

[okiedog]

Conicals make the whole process easier, you lucky dog you! I wish I had one.

 

[porter1974]

It’s my first brew with the conical. All my other brews have been in glass carboys. In the end I was using a swamp cooler but couldn’t get the temperature dialed in right where I wanted. Too warm without a swamp cooler and too cool with it. The grainfather is pretty nifty. I have the cooling kit. It works really well.