Cropping hefweizen yeast from a conical FV

[Supernaut]

Hello All,

Anyone cropping and re-pitching hefe yeast (WLP300) from a 7 BBL conical? Is it possible? I'm analyzing and re-pitching my ale yeast with ease but our hefe is one of my best sellers and I always have to buy the pitch.

Any suggestions? Maybe collect via the blow-off arm (it makes a huge mess every time)? No, I don't have space for a brink or an open FV :-)

Suggestions welcome - thanks!

John

[SPace]

Perhaps you could blow off in to a sanitized keg, might not be the safest idea due to the risk of clogs occurring.

A set up like this: Blow off arm to hose to coupler connected to your keg; this way blown off yeast enters the keg through the spear and gas is allowed to escape through the "gas in" port, just like when you fill a keg with finished beer.

Again, this could easily clog and become dangerously pressurized.

Feel free to tear this idea apart.

[beerme]

have you tried:
ferment it out
crash chill for a week
rack beer off of yeast with racking arm
collect remaining yeast from the cone?

[Todd Hicks]

If you are brewing hefeweizen so often that there is trouble waiting for it to flocculate before cropping, then why not pitch fermenting wort by racking cone to cone. Best to pitch at high krausen.

[TunMonkey]

Same FV

I guess I'm thinking along the same lines as Todd that if your Hefe is in high demand then time out your brewing schedule to rack one batch off then just brew right into your Hefe FV afterward.

We've done this with a couple of beers that use the house yeast strain (English ale yeast) where we rack off to the BBT during the brew day then just knock out into that same FV with a fresh batch of wort on top of the existing yeast.

[Supernaut]

beerme/Todd:Frankly the thin slurry in the cone after racking would be impossible to get a cell count from. For back-to-back batches the cone-to-cone rack is not a bad idea but, frankly, WLP300 pretty much does not floc at all.

SPace: I've been thinking of just blowing off into a large, sanitized bucket and seeing what settles to the bottom, of anything, or cropping from the top. The keg idea gives me the willies :-)

Frankly, even if I could save some yeast via the bucket idea, not sure how well I'll be able to count it. Heh. Guess I may as well just try.

We sell a lot of hefeweizen. I tend to turn it around in 9-11 days.

Thanks!!!

John

PS: For the record, I've only seen folks with open fermenters saving hefe yeast - to bad we don't have room for another FV...

[Jedi]

beerme/Todd:Frankly the thin slurry in the cone after racking would be impossible to get a cell count from. For back-to-back batches the cone-to-cone rack is not a bad idea but, frankly, WLP300 pretty much does not floc at all.

SPace: I've been thinking of just blowing off into a large, sanitized bucket and seeing what settles to the bottom, of anything, or cropping from the top. The keg idea gives me the willies :-)

Frankly, even if I could save some yeast via the bucket idea, not sure how well I'll be able to count it. Heh. Guess I may as well just try.

We sell a lot of hefeweizen. I tend to turn it around in 9-11 days.

Thanks!!!

John

PS: For the record, I've only seen folks with open fermenters saving hefe yeast - to bad we don't have room for another FV...

Why not try it in a scientific controlled format with equal ratio but lower volumes on your smaller test systems fermentors. Then time it on your hefe brew day you drop liquid from your fermented cone and add your new wort on top to the same ratio you would in the 7bbl. Test the performance.

Worst case you might screw up 1 bbl vs 7. If it doesn't work, then drop in some new yeast to allow it to finish, drop some fruit in and you have a couple unique cask hefe's to sell. [emoji4]

[BeirEng]

Why not try it in a scientific controlled format with equal ratio but lower volumes on your smaller test systems fermentors. Then time it on your hefe brew day you drop liquid from your fermented cone and add your new wort on top to the same ratio you would in the 7bbl. Test the performance.

Worst case you might screw up 1 bbl vs 7. If it doesn't work, then drop in some new yeast to allow it to finish, drop some fruit in and you have a couple unique cask hefe's to sell. [emoji4]

^ This.......

[Junkyard]

beerme/Todd:Frankly the thin slurry in the cone after racking would be impossible to get a cell count from. For back-to-back batches the cone-to-cone rack is not a bad idea but, frankly, WLP300 pretty much does not floc at all.

SPace: I've been thinking of just blowing off into a large, sanitized bucket and seeing what settles to the bottom, of anything, or cropping from the top. The keg idea gives me the willies :-)

Frankly, even if I could save some yeast via the bucket idea, not sure how well I'll be able to count it. Heh. Guess I may as well just try.

We sell a lot of hefeweizen. I tend to turn it around in 9-11 days.

Thanks!!!

John

PS: For the record, I've only seen folks with open fermenters saving hefe yeast - to bad we don't have room for another FV...

If you're not willing to try any of the previous suggestions, how about replacing one of your fermenters with a top manway fermenter? A 32 oz stainless soup ladle works great to top crop out of a top manway.

[Supernaut]

If you're not willing to try any of the previous suggestions, how about replacing one of your fermenters with a top manway fermenter? A 32 oz stainless soup ladle works great to top crop out of a top manway.

Now THAT is a whack with the clue-by-four. I have 4 7 BBL FVs and one of them is a DME with a top manway. Hmm. I could make it my hefe-only FV. Thanks, Junkyard - that's a great idea.

Jedi/BeirEng: unfortunately I do not have a real test system besides my old 1/2 BBL homebrew rig (which is in pieces in my basement). I have been toying with the idea of setting it up as a hefe yeast generator, but I like Junkyard's idea...

Thanks!

John

[dvarga]

I have only had success with harvesting sufficient amount of yeast after about a week of cooling after fermentation.
If you have the time to do that, you should get enough cells for pitching.

[Junkyard]

Now THAT is a whack with the clue-by-four. I have 4 7 BBL FVs and one of them is a DME with a top manway. Hmm. I could make it my hefe-only FV. Thanks, Junkyard - that's a great idea.

Jedi/BeirEng: unfortunately I do not have a real test system besides my old 1/2 BBL homebrew rig (which is in pieces in my basement). I have been toying with the idea of setting it up as a hefe yeast generator, but I like Junkyard's idea...

Thanks!

John

Glad I could help. At our brewery we have all top manway's for that reason. I top crop the same way with English and Belgian strains. We use a big stainless ladle and crop it right into an oversized yeast brink (since the yeast is so foamy when top cropping.) One downside to top cropping is you might have to come in on a weekend to crop because with most strains (not sure about the hefe strain) but most strains have a sweet spot for a day or two when top cropping is best.

Cheers