Dry hopping and yeast harvesting

[Mark Weusten]

Dry Hopping

Interesting article posed by Mangrove Jacks on Facebook. Basically says anymore than 3 days is detrimental (even though the majority of quoted breweries take much longer) and if you dry hop when the yeast is under the beer don't reuse the yeast. Any comments?

[Peter Smith]

bad link?

[Mark Weusten]

Not sure why that didnt work

http://www.port66.co.uk/dry-hopping/

[Crusader-Rob]

Yeah read that the other day. Good article, although I read this one this morning, which is an interesting take on the dry-hopping process. http://perfectpint.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/brew-day-hoppy-pale-ale.html

[Mark Weusten]

Good article indeed. I am going to try taking the beer off the yeast to seconday and crushing the pellets in my latest brew.

[Steve Hinton]

I just brewed a beer with some washed yeast from an Epic PA clone that calls for two large dry hop additons to the fermenter. I dry hop with loose pellets. I used a 3 step wash instead of the usual 2 step which seemed to do the job. 2nd gen beer fermented out fine (1.014) so will be interesting to see if there are any off flavours from the yeast.

[Steve Hinton]

Having said that, I'd probably not bother in future. Mainly because the washing takes a heck of a long time. I'm opting for new viles and a step up starter now.

[Mark Weusten]

I also used rewashed Epic PA yeast in my IPA this weekend. It is pretty volatile going nuts, interesting t isee the flavours also. I only washed twice then grew it up in a 3 litre starter. If I notice any off flavours from the hops I am going back to dry yeast as don't have the time for all the shagging around.

[Crusader-Rob]

The other way to do it is, when you make your starter build a starter 500ml largerthan required, and once fermented out, prior to chilling, separate off the 500ml which is essentially a fresh vial of yeast.

[Ryan Perkins]

I have just started doing this as well.  Beats washing and you get yeast that is a lot cleaner and healthier. 

[Mark Weusten]

Peter S reckoned I should get a stirring plate to grow yeast fast. Maybe I am doing it wrong, my 3 litre jug of 1272 @1040 only doubled in size over 3 days......I agree why wash when you can grow.

[Peter Smith]

It grows a lot faster under 20L of beer Mark !

I am not going to take as religion one article on dry hopping  not to repitch yeast,  I have the white book "Yeast" going to skim through it tonight , from memory it talks most about oxygen and how that lets the yeast build protection around cells as it drops out at the end of ferment, cant recall anything about not repitching from a DHed beer

https://www.wyeastlab.com/com-yeast-harvest.cfm

[Mark Weusten]

I think I will start doing some 10 litre starters to get a decent crop. I have only had one beer that was low enough gravity to harvest in the last fair few brews so running low.