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  • Top cropping question

    We've recently started top cropping pretty much all of our strains for hopes of increased viability. we top crop at the end of day two or start of day 3 fermentation, The viability in the microscope is great, the yeast is usually still active, and budding somewhat. Im wondering can I then store the yeast in our cooler for a few days before use? Is there any downsides to cold storing top cropped yeast right after harvest?


    thanks

  • #2
    Top Cropping Question

    You definitely want to store it cold, even fairly rapid cooling shouldn't cause any problems. Most strains will maintain decent viability for a week, easy, in your cold room. One caution about top cropping in general I'd add is that when you crop the yeast is important. With some strains, cropping early over a few generations can lead to selecting for early flocculating cells that won't fully attenuate your wort. We see this with Wyeast 1007- we get around 10 generations, and it starts floccing early, loafing around on top & ignoring the tasty maltose below. Our other main strain, Essex/WLP036, on the other hand, is performing consistently at 110+ generations. Just something to watch for....

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    • #3
      thanks for the reinforcement. As you probably inferred, I was mainly worried about cooling them down if the yeast hadnt had time to build up glycogen storage like they do under bottom cropping circumstances.

      110 generations! Wowza. Is it safe to say then that because of the nature of top cropping you can avoid contamination more than bottom cropping? Or are you guys just that perfect with your sanitation. We only go 6 or so generations regardless.. we havent really run into a contamination problem, or a strain mutation problem, and dont really want to take the chances.


      Originally posted by MikeyB View Post
      You definitely want to store it cold, even fairly rapid cooling shouldn't cause any problems. Most strains will maintain decent viability for a week, easy, in your cold room. One caution about top cropping in general I'd add is that when you crop the yeast is important. With some strains, cropping early over a few generations can lead to selecting for early flocculating cells that won't fully attenuate your wort. We see this with Wyeast 1007- we get around 10 generations, and it starts floccing early, loafing around on top & ignoring the tasty maltose below. Our other main strain, Essex/WLP036, on the other hand, is performing consistently at 110+ generations. Just something to watch for....

      Comment

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