Yeast Havesting

[Captain 3 Droids]

The Beerdroid makes havesting yeast so easy. After kegging or bottling remove tap and drain plug and place a clean sanitised jar underneath. (If you don’t have something to put the jar on you may need someone to hold it for you).

Tilt the Beerdroid forward using the lifting areas and drain the yeast slurry into the jar. (You may need to add some boiled then cooled water to rinse a bit out). Put the jar in the fridge and the solution will settle, liquid on top, a yeast layer, then general trub. I don’t do a cleaning process of the yeast unless going to keep for over a week. When ready to use , take it out of the fridge and drain off the liquid, let it get to room temperature then add the rest to your wort. (If you a doing another brew straight away just tip the lot in.)

[Paul84]

How often do you reharvest the yeast @Barrelboy? 

[Captain 3 Droids]

5 minutes ago, Paul84 said:

How often do you reharvest the yeast @Barrelboy? 

The Brewprint yeasts aren’t all that expensive so I don’t do it often. Usually if I’ve run out of a particular one I’ll harvest and keep in the fridge until required (not long).

When I was doing the 23l kit brews I harvest often to get some decent volume of yeast as those 7g packs under the lids for 23l was fairly sparse. 
 

 

[J P]

any reason to not just make a half batch from those 23L kits and just leave the trub and yeast in the droid?  i suppose contamination could be a concern but agree 3.5g of yeast seemed a bit light

[Captain 3 Droids]

7 minutes ago, J P said:

any reason to not just make a half batch from those 23L kits and just leave the trub and yeast in the droid?  i suppose contamination could be a concern but agree 3.5g of yeast seemed a bit light

Don’t see a problem as long as you put the next brew in straight away and I wouldn’t add any more yeast, just the water (stir a bit) and then the ingredients.

[J P]

Will give that a try mate thanks for the advice.  

[Captain 3 Droids]

I also bought one of these, sanitise the syringe and after draining the fluid off then suck out the yeast. Then inject straight into the fermenter/Droid.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/100ML-Plastic-Large-Syringe-Measuring-Nutrient-Sterile-Reusable-Kitchen-Tool-L3-/403525528417?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0

[Hambone]

G'day team, 

I thought I'd do a little pictorial of how to top crop yeast from the Droid. My personal opinion is that all the yeasts we use would be ok to top crop. 

First you need a container. I like these little jars from the cheapy shop for a couple of dollars with a rubber seal.

Boil the jar and lid you are going to use for a min of 10mins.

Remove from the boiling water with tongs or similar. Ensure to do conduct two clicks of the tongs to confirm correct operation. . 

Flip the lid closed and clip it on. If you are using a normal jam jar or something, take care to fix the lid on without burning yourself. 

Allow to cool overnight at least, to room temp.

When ready to open the droid and scoop out the yeasty goodness, gather your equipment. 

Scooping implement, sanitiser and pre prepared jar. 

Sanitise the spoon and make sure you allow time for the sanitiser to do it's work.  When ready, open the Droid and immediately sanitise the under side of the lid and the lip of the Droid. Store your lid upside-down on the bench. 

Open the jar and empty out some water so that it's about one third full of water. Or two thirds empty. Scoop out all the foam directly into the jar. When it's full seal the lid.

Top of the brew looks like this afterwards. 

Give the lid and surrounds another spray with sanitiser and put the lid back on.

Since fermentation is still going on, don't be concerned about oxygen ingress. Your greatest concern should be sanitisation and cleanliness. The method of harvesting yeast poses the greatest risk of infection to your beer. Getting the yeast from the bottom after kegging is less dangerous but also gives you trub etc. This method is pure yeast and boiled water.

Enjoy. 

Cheers 

[Hambone]

Label and store in the Fridge. 30 mins later. 

[Dustin Frothman]

1 hour ago, Hambone said:

G'day team, 

I thought I'd do a little pictorial of how to top crop yeast from the Droid. My personal opinion is that all the yeasts we use would be ok to top crop. 

First you need a container. I like these little jars from the cheapy shop for a couple of dollars with a rubber seal.

Boil the jar and lid you are going to use for a min of 10mins.

Remove from the boiling water with tongs or similar. Ensure to do conduct two clicks of the tongs to confirm correct operation. . 

Flip the lid closed and clip it on. If you are using a normal jam jar or something, take care to fix the lid on without burning yourself. 

Allow to cool overnight at least, to room temp.

When ready to open the droid and scoop out the yeasty goodness, gather your equipment. 

Scooping implement, sanitiser and pre prepared jar. 

Sanitise the spoon and make sure you allow time for the sanitiser to do it's work.  When ready, open the Droid and immediately sanitise the under side of the lid and the lip of the Droid. Store your lid upside-down on the bench. 

Open the jar and empty out some water so that it's about one third full of water. Or two thirds empty. Scoop out all the foam directly into the jar. When it's full seal the lid.

Top of the brew looks like this afterwards. 

Give the lid and surrounds another spray with sanitiser and put the lid back on.

Since fermentation is still going on, don't be concerned about oxygen ingress. Your greatest concern should be sanitisation and cleanliness. The method of harvesting yeast poses the greatest risk of infection to your beer. Getting the yeast from the bottom after kegging is less dangerous but also gives you trub etc. This method is pure yeast and boiled water.

Enjoy. 

Cheers 

That’s brilliant, thanks for going to the trouble of taking the step by step photos.

Cheers!

[Captain 3 Droids]

1 hour ago, Hambone said:

G'day team, 

I thought I'd do a little pictorial of how to top crop yeast from the Droid. My personal opinion is that all the yeasts we use would be ok to top crop. 

First you need a container. I like these little jars from the cheapy shop for a couple of dollars with a rubber seal.

Boil the jar and lid you are going to use for a min of 10mins.

Remove from the boiling water with tongs or similar. Ensure to do conduct two clicks of the tongs to confirm correct operation. . 

Flip the lid closed and clip it on. If you are using a normal jam jar or something, take care to fix the lid on without burning yourself. 

Allow to cool overnight at least, to room temp.

When ready to open the droid and scoop out the yeasty goodness, gather your equipment. 

Scooping implement, sanitiser and pre prepared jar. 

Sanitise the spoon and make sure you allow time for the sanitiser to do it's work.  When ready, open the Droid and immediately sanitise the under side of the lid and the lip of the Droid. Store your lid upside-down on the bench. 

Open the jar and empty out some water so that it's about one third full of water. Or two thirds empty. Scoop out all the foam directly into the jar. When it's full seal the lid.

Top of the brew looks like this afterwards. 

Give the lid and surrounds another spray with sanitiser and put the lid back on.

Since fermentation is still going on, don't be concerned about oxygen ingress. Your greatest concern should be sanitisation and cleanliness. The method of harvesting yeast poses the greatest risk of infection to your beer. Getting the yeast from the bottom after kegging is less dangerous but also gives you trub etc. This method is pure yeast and boiled water.

Enjoy. 

Cheers 

Top stuff, in all the years of brewing I’ve never done a top cropping for the yeast, so besides learning something new I now have something to explore. Thanks.

Cheers

[J P]

Nailed it!

thanks for the how to mate.  
 

looking forward to top cropping.   
 

mostly because it sounds like alchemy.
 

🤣