Well, I decided to take a shot at harvesting yeast. With the cost of supplies and shipping going up, I figure that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. By harvesting yeast, if done properly, a home brewer can save a lot of money on their cost of brewing. Now if you are using dry yeast, or the Mr. Beer ale yeast that ships with the HME cans, there wouldn’t be any need to harvest your yeast. But, if you are like me, and like to play around with different strains of liquid yeast, you can go through 2-3 smack packs or vials of yeast a month. At a cost of $4 - $6 per smack pack or vial (plus shipping) this can add up in a hurry.
I have read many different ways of harvesting yeast and have had input from people on this board and have compiled what I consider to be the safest and easiest way to harvest yeast. This is a “work in progress” but so far the results look so good that I had to share the results and process so far.
There are many different ways of harvesting yeast. I decided to go with the method of harvesting the yeast from the bottom of the fermentor after bottling (or bottom cropping). This way I didn’t have to worry about contaminating the batch by trying to collect the yeast during fermentation. Maybe 6 months down the road I’ll attempt other methods and share those results also.
First of all, sanitation is key to make this work. I would double or triple your sanitation efforts that you would normally use in your brewing process just to be safe.
There were all kinds of containers discussed to use for storing the yeast that was collected. Everything from zip-lock baggies to mason jars. I decided to use glass Arizona Ice Tea bottles.
First I filled up the brew pot with water and submerse my bottles and caps. I put the pot on the stove and boil for 30 mins.
I used tongs to pull the bottles out of the pot, dumping just a bit of water out as I pulled them out, then grabbed a cap out with the tongs also. Using hot pads, I put the cap on while everything was still really hot.
I decided to let them sit out at room temperature for about 4 hours to cool gradually (didn’t want the bottles to break) then put them in the frig. The next day they were all cooled down and the little pop-top on the caps were not popped any more so, and long as they stay up-popped (sorry, don’t have a better way to explain this) then the seal is air tight.
I kept the bottled water cold because it makes collecting the yeast so much easier. I had a glass growler that I decided to use as my “test fermentor”. I’m going to use it to ferment test batches with my collected yeast till I’m comfortable about pitching the harvested yeast into my Mr. Beer kegs. I also used it here to test some new dry yeast.
On the bottom, the yeast that needs to be collected has settled on top of the turb. I siphoned the beer out and bottled it. After bottling, I used a cotton ball with alcohol on it and rubbed it on the neck of my growler and growler cap then took out an Arizona Ice Tea bottle, opened it and dumped it into the growler and put the cap back on the Arizona Ice Tea bottle and the growler. Swirled the growler around to gently mix everything up a bit and let it sit for about an hour. The turb settled back out and the yeast that needs to be collected is in suspension.
I poured it back into the Arizona Ice Tea jar and recapped it. Put it in the frig and let it sit. I also collected the yeast in my Mr. Beer keg that I had fermenting at the same time using this same method. One of the bottles I “washed” the yeast, on the other bottle I didn’t. I also had some vials for collecting blood available to me so I decided to use one to store the yeast also since they are sterile and make a perfect clean storage container.
I’m brewing again this coming weekend so I’ll use some of the collected yeast to brew another test batch. I figure that in about 1-3 months I’ll feel comfortable enough to pitch the harvested yeast into my Mr. Beer kegs or abandon this endeavor all together.
If I only go 4 generations with my yeast and harvest 2 bottles from every batch, it looks like I should be able to brew up to 60 batches from 1 smack pack!! I’m not planning on doing this. My plan is to play around with 3 or 4 different yeast strains and alternate which ones I using from month to month, harvesting when I need to. That way I can still have variety but not have to buy yeast for quite some time.
Happy Brewing!
John
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