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]

There is about 10 pages in whites book, he mentions that with "good management" you can expect to get 5-10 gens, that often it gets into stride on the 3rd plus gen BUT that sanitation is critical and repitching trub can hurt flavours.  says most HBers fail due to sanitation issues and yeast can lose vitality after multiple gens....  nothing about big DH ping being a no no but there is mention of don't reuse over 1.070 , that makes sense.   

I am going to continue to repitch will tell you in time if I have massive issues.  I got to gen 6 in us 05 once and failed..... didnt have oxygen back then, dont intend to push much beyond 5-6 with the 1272 without doing a decent restarter....   still I do have about 500ml of clean slurry from gen 2 in the fridge could just restart 100ml of that.

[Ryan Perkins]

I am still washing as well for the time being just to have extra yeast on hand when I don't have time for a starter.  It's definitely more convenient pitching a washed slurry than growing up enough to pitch.

[Peter Smith]

I have made 1272 my house yeast so it sits under pilsners / ales and some experimental bitters/stouts.   makes it easier as there is always a lot of it around and often under non DHed beers.    It seems to wash well, and I rarely make a 5.5%+ beer.

Also I am mainly brewing 46L batches right now so there is a lot of fresh yeast around, due to a calendar full of coming BBQs where I am taking the beer, no pressure though.... makes you very project oriented re brewing and carbing beers, and very aware of the amount of work required.

I cant say enough good things about 1272 as a yeast, doesnt want to cook your beer, drops super bright when chilled and will finish below 16 the entire way through clean as a clean thing...

Ryan congrats on your medal !

[Ryan Perkins]

I am about to pitch some 1272 into my case swap brew now.  First time using it so looking forward to the result.

Thanks Peter I was pretty stoked to get them and a bit surprised!