Top Cropping Wlp-830

[Hogan]

I am using this yeast (aka 34/70) as my basic lager yeast and have harvested and reused it successfully from the bottom of the fermenter. In an old BN podcast Dr Chris White said that a number of lager yeasts, even though they are bottom fermenters, were also very viable after being top cropped.

Anyone harvested this yeast from the top? I have sent off an email to WhiteLabs but would also like to see if anyone here has had a go at it.


Cheers, Hoges.

 

[raven19]

Have not top cropped lager yeasts myself, prefer bottom cropping once racked off the yeast cake in lagers.

I would presume the really active yeasts would be up top - in terms of generation of the yeast - early on I would have thought this would be a fine and acceptable practice - but my reluctance would be after a number of generations would the top fermenting lager yeasties be producing the same resultant beer?

 

[Hogan]

The response from WhiteLabs as follows:

The WLP830 is not a strain that we normally recommend for top cropping.
Lager strains are usually bottom fermenting strains so are difficult to
crop. If you keep a close eye on the fermentation you may be able to catch
the yeast at the right time, but I have not heard of anyone harvesting this
strain of lager yeast that way. It's better to collect it from the bottom
after fermentation is complete.

John Carroll
White Labs, Inc.
Sales & Customer Service
Tel: (888) 593-2785 - U.S. & Canada
(303) 530-0469 - International

 

[Josh]

I've top cropped both Wyeast 2247 European Lager and WLP838 Southern German Lager yeasts. Just made up another flask of starter wort and once it was cooled, I took a few spoons of the krausen and started them up on the stir plate. Fermented out a few nice lagers like this, including my 2010 NSW Xmas in July Doppelbock with WLP838.