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Mostly economical, yes. Another reason is potentially limited (or non-existent) commercial availability of specific strains. Either the yeast company's seasonal strain releases or something cultivated from yeast remaining in the bottle. Another reason is to develop a "house" strain, or to modify the behavior of an existing strain. For instance, the good-...

Yes, the current consensus is don't bother rinsing (homebrewers almost never truly wash) the yeast. I have verified this for myself over the course of hundreds of batches. There is no advantage to rinsing the yeast and it's just another point where you could contaminate it. 1.) I have never found the trub to have any effect on the next batch. When I use ...

First, make sure there's yeat there to capture! Some people mistake any sediment for yeast. For instance, every German lager I know of is filtered so there won't be any yeast. Assuming there is yeast, make up about 2 cups of 1.020 wort. Flame the opening of the bottle with the yeast you want to capture and pour the sediment into your starter wort. Let ...

The microbes that are present in the juice (from the skins of the apple and on the press itself) will eventually replicate and start to metabolize the sugars in the juice. If, by "bad", you mean "poisonous or harmful to you", then the answer is that it will not be harmful or bad, except for the harmful effects of alcohol. The acids and alcohol created by ...

I assume they're all different re-pitches of the same original strain? Certainly you would want to keep different strains apart so you can pitch based on their desired properties. But even still, I would keep the harvested yeast separate, if only so you can use them in a FIFO order of collection. The method you're using the harvest yeast has a reliable ...

The "scientific" way would be to use a microscope and hemacytometer to count cells. The empirical method is what I use and has worked well for me for several hundred batches. You make a guess! I use between 1/3-1/2 of a previous slurry if I'm going to direct pitch the slurry. I use between 2 TBSP. -1/4 cup if I'm going to make a new starter from slurry.

I've been washing yeast for years now and I've never had washed yeast be completely dead, even after 9 months, but that doesn't mean you should necessarily use it. If you do wash yeast, ALWAYS prepare a starter. This will let you know if the viability is good (if it propagates) and smell the starter before pitching. I have ruined two batches by pitching 'off-...

In Yeast (White & Zainasheff), they have a table of the reliable and max shelf life of yeast storage techniques: Harvested slurry: 2 weeks / 6 weeks Agar plate: 1 month / 1 year (if sealed) Agar slant: 3 months / 1-2 years Agar stab: 4 months / 2-3 years Water immersion: 6 months / 3-5 years … &c., up to professional freezing. People report ...

Yes, harvest them. IME, frost burn will ruin them.

I disagree that yeast slurry shouldn't be 'washed' (purified, really) in general. I think it's all about how you go about it and what you want to accomplish. If it's done right, in a sanitary manner, it's perfectly safe and will allow more consistency and predictability in your finished beer. Storing under cold water over long periods is better than beer for ...

I was in Yakima for Hop and Brew School about a month ago and asked a hop grower the same question. His answer was "we're gonna dry 'em anyway!". Dry them as soon as possible...hops start to compost themselves within one hour of harvesting, and if they're wet it will happen sooner. After many years of playing with drying temp, I've found that about 130F ...

Judging by the light creamy color of your yeast/trub layer, it looks like you harvested very clean yeast, with very little trub mixed in. I'm not sure where that creamy foaming comes from, as you said probably from the carbonation. I've had harvested and stored Belgian yeast starting to float when removing from the fridge within 5-10 minutes, and even ...

Make a starter ASAP. That is the only way to know if anything survived. Chances are slim as the frozen cells rapture when frozen. If the starter picks up, then step it up and harvest from that. If you want to freeze your yeast you need special "anti-freeze" so that the cells do not rapture.

The viability will have been seriously affected you may have some OK cells in there, but the formation of ice crystals with in the cells will have ruptured the majority of the cells. You may be able to make a starter from it.

In order: WLP004 and 1084 are actually the same yeast. Slightly different environments and /or methods of analysis probably account for the slightly different specs from each manufacturer. Yeast is a living thing after all. Your own brewing environment and methods will affect attenuation more than WhiteLabs vs WYeast will. If you're going for dry, read this ...

I don't think this will make it easier for anaerobic bacteria - they are not really affected by the presence or lack of oxygen, and since there is little food available I doubt they would propagate anyway. I don't think it will do any harm, but you may want to try harvesting two jars yeast at the same time both with and without a vacuum to see if there ...