Post by bbushmaster on Feb 1, 2010 20:13:03 GMT -5
here is John Palmers method has any body done this?
After racking the beer, swirl up the yeast layer on the bottom and pour some into a large sanitized jar (such as a mayonnaise jar).
Gently pour in some cold, boiled water and swirl it up to get all the yeast and trub in suspension.
Let the jar sit for a minute or three to allow most of the trub to settle to the bottom. Gently pour the cloudy water, containing suspended yeast, into another sanitized jar. Discard the dark trub.
Add some more water and repeat this procedure until you are left with a substantially light-colored yeast suspension and only a thin brown layer of dead yeast and trub on the bottom of the jar.
Store the jar in the refridgerator for up to a couple months. The yeast will turn brown as it ages. Discard it once it turns the color of peanut butter. Eventually the yeast will autolyze and die as its nutritional reserves are used up.
Pitch the yeast to a starter before using to ensure its vitality. If the starter smells wrong--rancid, vinegary, etc., the yeast may be contaminated. The dominant smell of a starter should be a yeasty smell, but sulfur smells are not necessarily bad, especially with lager yeast strains.
*Note: You want to use boiled water for two reasons:
For sanitation.
To avoid exposing the yeast to dissolved oxygen which would cause the yeast to deplete their glycogen reserves before storage.
After racking the beer, swirl up the yeast layer on the bottom and pour some into a large sanitized jar (such as a mayonnaise jar).
Gently pour in some cold, boiled water and swirl it up to get all the yeast and trub in suspension.
Let the jar sit for a minute or three to allow most of the trub to settle to the bottom. Gently pour the cloudy water, containing suspended yeast, into another sanitized jar. Discard the dark trub.
Add some more water and repeat this procedure until you are left with a substantially light-colored yeast suspension and only a thin brown layer of dead yeast and trub on the bottom of the jar.
Store the jar in the refridgerator for up to a couple months. The yeast will turn brown as it ages. Discard it once it turns the color of peanut butter. Eventually the yeast will autolyze and die as its nutritional reserves are used up.
Pitch the yeast to a starter before using to ensure its vitality. If the starter smells wrong--rancid, vinegary, etc., the yeast may be contaminated. The dominant smell of a starter should be a yeasty smell, but sulfur smells are not necessarily bad, especially with lager yeast strains.
*Note: You want to use boiled water for two reasons:
For sanitation.
To avoid exposing the yeast to dissolved oxygen which would cause the yeast to deplete their glycogen reserves before storage.