Keeping yeast from my brew

[hopping mad]

I don't make it to my brewsupply shop very often, so how can I preserve some yeast from my current batch. Its a top fermenting yeast and in the past I've tried saving some of the sludge from the bottom with very weak success. Should I try scooping some of the foam and stuff thats on the top?

[spiderwrangler]

This is an excellent way to potentially harvest yeast, and one that Tasty has talked about doing in the past. I'd caution that unless your sanitation is excellent, playing around with yeast harvesting and repitching is asking for a bad batch. Harvesting from the bottom should give you good yeast, but I'd recommend rinsing (JZ has described this multiple places), and if unless you are using it again immediately, put it through a starter to make sure you are pitching the highest quality, healthiest yeast.

[animaldoc]

Get the Yeast book by Zanisheff and White and start making slants. Best way to keep stable cultures, you can plate them to make sure they are clean, and you have a markedly reduced risk of contamination compared to repitching yeast. You still need to have excellent sanitation practices but IMHO it's easier with the smaller quantities involved.

They'll also give you good advice about repitching and rinsing yeast.

The only downside is you have to plan a week in advance to grow up your culture.

[scotchpine]

I have been having great success this year with yeast rinsing. I rinse with pre boiled water and store in the fridge. It separates into 3 layers and I use a sanitzed turkey baster to extract the middle layer (clean yeast) and drop it into my starter. Did 7 batches in a row from one pack of 1272, making starters. They have all turned out great with healthy fermantations. I am going to try top cropping some 3787 from the blowoff tube on my next batch in a couple days. Maybe a Burton Union type of setup. Good luck with yours.

[joelikesbeer]

What did you find so unsuccessful about saving the slurry from the bottom? This is something I've done dozens of times with great success.

[scotchpine]

If you're asking me, it's not that it's been unsuccessful, but I wanted to try top cropping this time. JZ mentions in his book that the yeast harvested at high krausen are the healthiest and most viable. Since 3787 is a true top cropping yeast, I just wanted to try it this way to build up for my Tripel in a few weeks.