Pitched my first washed yeast today.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

waldoar15

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2009
Messages
1,003
Reaction score
143
Location
Ohio
WLP051 into an Alaskan Amber clone. Wish me luck. :p

I got tired of looking at it every time I opened the fridge, so I figured, WTH.
 
I have always had strong fermentation with washed yeast, but i always make a starter (not sure if you did or not). Best of luck and let us know how it turns out!

+1 on yeast washing, i started doing it shortly after i started using liquid yeast and brewing a lot. I have washed around 100 jars of yeast. Its always super nice having a nice yeast bank sitting in the fridge so you can pick out exactly what you want to use.
 
Yeast washing is awesome.

I use it less now that the local shop cares Safale S-05. The $1.50 to me is worth not having to make a starter when it comes to beers I'm not picky about (The extract used in a starter is probably worth this much).

But I have used pacman from rogue bottles on several occasions and kept the yeast for several generations. It's also nice for the 1/3 of beers I brew without the pacman/chico yeast strains, such as my wyeast kolsch strain.
 
+1 for yeast washing! I just pitch my first washed yeast, Wyeast 3944, Monday morning and it's going full boar. It's been in my fridge since the beginning of August and took off overnight in my starter. Many thanks to Bernie because saving on yeast means I can make more beer :mug:
 
Yeast washing is awesome.

I use it less now that the local shop cares Safale S-05. The $1.50 to me is worth not having to make a starter when it comes to beers I'm not picky about (The extract used in a starter is probably worth this much).

Except that S-05 is now between $3 and $4 at the major retailers.
 
Except that S-05 is now between $3 and $4 at the major retailers.


Wow. That's my go to yeast for my IPA. I just bought two packets at the local for $1.99 ea. At that price, it's not worth washing to me. The liquid, OTOH is well worth the trouble.
 
I'm probably going to harvest yeast from my marzen this weekend when I put it in secondary, but only some of it. I plan to direct pitch 3 gallons of 'beer' (a SMaSH) on part of the cake to take advantage of those yeasties.

My LHBS is selling some Fermentis strains for $7, barely less than his white lab vials.
 
Sorry I never got back to this post. The washed yeast took off in eight hours. I didn't make a starter, but I pitched all I had (which was quite a bit).

:p
 
Yeast washing is great way to save money. I also have started yeast harvesting like explained in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

I like it because it produces a clean yeast with no hops, etc. from the previous batch. It's also a heck of a lot easier. I do this with dry packs, as well, and it's great. You could easily quadruple the yeast count from one pack of dry yeast with a pound of DME. I usually pitch and decant twice for a stepped-up started. I do a 2L in a small flask, and then half of my 5L flask for a final count probably somewhere over 800 billion. Even for an ale, one pack is right on the ragged edge for a batch. I usually make about 6 gallons, and most gravities will push it over even the freshest pack of dry yeast at 220 billion.

It really pays off on lagers. I can usually get 3 lager batchs (18 gallons) out of a single pack of 34/70 and a couple pounds of DME total. Most 6 gallon lager batches are over 2 packs of yeast if you pitch the correct amount.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top