Cropping Yeast

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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Meatymc
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Cropping Yeast

Post by Meatymc » Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:15 am

I'm a BIABer and fairly recently adopted IPA's method of cropping yeast in the early days of fermentation. Very happy with this process.

On a recent post I made fairly derogatory comments about making a lager for SWMBO - not wanting to tie-up my brew fridge. I ended up making a Kolsch and didn't bother cropping any yeast as not expecting repeating the exercise anytime soon. If for no other reason than the cost of the (Kolsch) yeast, that was a foolish mistake as I've been able to brew an (scavenged Proper Job yeast) IPA outside the brew fridge by insulating the (new additional) fermenting bucket and with everything following the usual pattern/timeframe - FG on target and ready to bottle.

Too late for this one (the Kolsch - as already in secondary) but for future reference, can you 'extract' yeast from the cake in the fermenter - and if so how and how do you store it? Is there any different starter procedure in getting it ready for a subsequent brew?

Sorry if this is a stupid question - still learning!

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alexlark
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Re: Cropping Yeast

Post by alexlark » Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:57 am

I've saved yeast from the cake. When I was brewing a few lagers at the end of 2016 I did 1 batch using a pack of Saflager, when I transfered the lager I left an inch of it in the FV. I swirled it around and split between 3 sanitised Grolsch bottles, placing the caps on with a bit of clingfilm - not securing tightly. Kept these in the fridge and used each 1 to do a brew by bringing up to room temp and tipping the whole bottle in the wort. Worked like a good un! As the cake was from a lager it was pretty nuteral and contained no hop matter.

If I did it again I'd use plastic bottles for safety and simplicity.

I do now use IPAs method exclusively.

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Meatymc
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Re: Cropping Yeast

Post by Meatymc » Tue Jan 30, 2018 5:11 pm

Cheers Alex - won't be so 'sniffy' next time around

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