Yeast Culturing from Kraeusen ?

Sep 05, 2004 3 Replies

I know it's a living culture and I can't make it from scratch, but I am interested if it's possible to harvest a new yeast culture out of kraeusen. Somewehere on webI read about old trappist brewers who were knowledgable enough to collect kraeusen and grew a new culture whichwas also improvimg a taste with each new generation of their kraeusen cultured yeast. What's the procedure called ? Please can someone point to a web page which explain the process, or explain such yeast harversting. I was searching sites

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and
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and could not find anything related about usefull purpose of collecting kraeusen.



Thank you.


Hey, it's as easy as bottling the trub. I didn't know there was a science or tradition to it or anything. Just be careful and start with clean bottles. It's just the sediment that collects after your primary fermentation, and after you bottle it, keep it refrigerated. That way it won't spoil. You should get two or three bottles out of five gallons. Good luck, -gc

"R.F." a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@user.uni-berlin.de...

This is not kraeusen harvesting but harvesting yeast from the trub after a batch is finished

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I do this all the time. I ferment in wide-mouthed vessels, so I just sanitize a spoon, dip in there and scoop some out. I don't take a lot -- usually just about enough to 2/3 fill an old White Labs vial. I store these in the fridge and use them as the basis for starters.

Some yeasts are better for this than others. WLP001, for instance, is a very good top-cropper. It all floats to the top after fermentation and is easily harvested. Safale S-04, on the other hand, sinks like a stone and sets like concrete in the bottom, so if you want to harvest it you have to get in half way through the fermentation. Of course, there's not much point harvesting a dried yeast strain because it's so cheap to buy more.

Rodd

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