[babalu87]

I havent been able to find a picture of what I am using when top cropping yeast but it looks like this , though it has as a longer handle and is only concave, not cupped as in the picture but the hole pattern is right on.



I usually end up with a full container of foam that ends up being a very small layer on the bottom of the jar after sitting in the fridge.

Obviously I'm not expecting to pull slurry off the krausen.

[dzlater]

      I have a beer fermenting and looking at it, I decided to try and do little top croppping.
The beer is in a better bottle, at the store I found a little ladle with slots in the bottom that
will fit in BB. It's made for scooping olives out of a jar.
     I read somewhere that a White Labs vial contains 35 ml yeast. Which is 7 (edit) "teaspoons"
so that's what I am going to try and scoop out. I am not pitching it directly into another batch.
     I am trying to decide if should boil an old White Labs vial and put the yeast in that, topped
off with boiled cooled water, just put it in a ziploc bag, or put in the ziploc and and some boiled
cooled water. Any one have any thoughts in regard to which would be easiest?
Do you think boiling a vial and cap is a bad idea?

[Jeff Renner]

I read somewhere that a White Labs vial contains 35 ml yeast. Which is 7 tablespoons

Quick note - 35 ml is seven teaspoons, or 2-1/3 tablespoons.

[Jeff Renner]

This looks like what I use to scoop yeast, although mine is better finished than this looks to be.  It's a US-made Ecko, which means it's old.  Everything seems to be made in China nowadays.

http://www.dinodirect.com/perforated-ladle-stainless-steel-handle/AFFID-20.html (I've tried to insert the image but without luck.)

My favorite ale yeast is WhiteLabs WLP022 Essex, which is a great top cropper.  I have a paternal fondness for this since I brought it back from England (Ridley's Brewery in Essex, now closed) and provided it to White Labs, but I'd like it anyway.

I generally harvest the yeast three or four days after pitching, when fermentation has slowed and the yeast head has collapsed into a thick layer about 1/2 inch thick.  I scoop the yeast with the ladle and drain it, then drop it into a one quart wide-mouth mason jar that I've sanitized by boiling.  I get more than enough to fill the jar from a ten gallon batch.  I put a sanitized lid loosely on the jar and put it in the fridge with a saucer since it often overflows, and when it settles down, I generally nave more than half a jar of thick yeast (the consistence of soft-serve ice cream) with beer on top.

I can keep this for some weeks, but if it's been more than three weeks or so, I generally make a starter.  I find that using one tablespoon (15 ml) of this thick yeast per gallon of normal strength wort works well, double that for strong wort (>1.060).

Since this yeast is only available seasonally, I keep it going a year or more this way, although now that one of our local brewpubs (Grizzly Peak) has adopted this as its house yeast, I don't have to worry about this.

Sometimes I pour off the beer and stir in cooled, boiled distilled or R.O. water.  This is supposed to keep yeast better than beer.

[Jeff Renner]

I generally harvest the yeast three or four days after pitching, when fermentation has slowed

I should mention that this is my procedure when I keg.  The fermentation at this point is just ticking over, and if I do everything right, it finishes up in the keg and produces the proper carbonation.

I open-ferment in a cut-off old-style half barrel.  Sometimes I put a lid on it; sometimes I don't.  I have a picture of an out-of-control fermentation of a RIS in this barrel at http://aabg.org/2007/06/05/the-yeast-that-ate-ann-arbor/

If I'm bottling, then I might let it go a little longer before racking to a carboy, where I'll let it settle out and/or dry hop before bottling.