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Yeast brainstorming- Thinking outside the carboy
I had a “Windows 7 commercial” moment the other day. I was looking at my two carboys fermenting next to each other, and thinking about the wasted yeast leaving through the blowoff tube. What if I brewed two similar beers a day apart and used the blowoff from beer #1 to inoculate beer #2 (brewed a day apart to allow full krausen on the first beer.)
Use a carboy cap on beer #2 to allow for input of the blowoff tube and an airlock on the other side. Beer #2 would have to be lower volume to allow for expansion without blowing the carboy cap off.
I realize that you wouldn’t have control over the numbers of yeast introduced, but I would think that since it is introduced slow and steady there wouldn’t be a over pitching problem.? I also realize that some hop oils would also be transferred.
I have no plans on trying this anytime soon, I just thought I would brainstorm out loud.
I am Giventofly and Windows 7 wasn’t my idea.
well Bass ales uses a system similar to that .they ferment in casks and have a blow off tube which pours the yeast into a troph right above the casks.then they harvest yeast from the thoph under the co2 and foam then repitch it back into the casks.a similar method is used for traditional brewing of some belgian ales and heffeweizen but they usually use a top cropping method of simply skimming off healthy yeast for repitching
into fresh wort.
Burton Union is what its called.
Not sure if at the home brew level you'll get enough but its always cool to try.
brewchez wrote:
Burton Union is what its called.
You learn something new every day. I googled it and found a BYO article on how to build one.
Thanks.
I think a good idea would be to blow off your yeast into an erlenmeyer and then step that up to pitch. Your yeast will be very active but over pitching would definitely not be your problem. In a Burton Union the beer moves from one to the other several times if i remember right.
The plus side to what you suggest is that the top cropped yeast will be very active and will grow very rapidly.
I have heard of home brewers top cropping, but not by a carboy cap and a tube. I don't know how well it would work, because the number of yeast cells beer 2 would get would be completely dependent on how much blowoff you get from beer 1. That said, I think you probably could get away with it, since you will be getting real active yeast, and so shouldn't need a huge amount. It could be a neat experiment.
I already harvest my yeast using a wash method using pre-boiled pre-canned jars of de-oxygenated water and it works like a charm,with that being said. I was thinking of taking a sanitized canning jar and cutting a hole for the blow-off tube to fit in.Then cutting another hole for a an air-lock with a beer bottle sized stopper and collecting yeast for harvest or repitching back into the beer like a heffeweisen or something with a lot of yeast blow-off
Kweifoman- I like that idea.
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