Kmcogar

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Ok, so I have a 8oz mason jar of washed yeast. How much to I throw into my starter?
Everything in the whole jar?
Just the stuff on top of the beige colored stuff?
Or everything including the beige colored stuff?
I just want to make sure I do this right. Someone should make a video of pitching there washed yeast into a starter.

Thanks

TyTanium

Recipes 

Pour the liquid off the top, then throw the creamy/beige slurry into the starter - that's the yeast.

BrewGardenCA

Recipes 

Yeah, you should see three levels in your jar. The top level will be the left-over beer from your last batch, the creamy beige stuff in the middle is the yeast, the cruddy stuff at the bottom, the left over hops and trub from your last batch.

Ideally, pour off the beer and then pour the yeast in, leaving the trub. Or, pour the beer and yeast in (as long as it's not a lot of beer.) I'd recommend leaving as much "crud" out of your new beer. That said, some folks rack right on top of that stuff and have much success with little off flavours.

Short answer: Try to just pitch the creamy middle yeast layer.

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Kmcogar

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10-4 thanks! That's all I needed to know

wolverinebrewer

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You should only have 2 layers if you do a good job of washing it. Three layers is not normal. Decant the clear liquid and add the thick stuff to your starter.

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fxdude

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Not sure anyone really answered your question of how much to pitch. If you go to mrmalty.com and use the pitching calculator, it has a tab for pitching from a yeast slurry which will tell you how much to use

Mrmalty.com

wolverinebrewer

Recipes 

I guess we didn't. I will expand on this a little. Once you open up the Malty yeast calculator, you will need to input the OG of your beer, your quantity in gal., and the harvest date of your washed yeast (this is very important). Then click on the "repitching from slurry" tab. Now, under 'yeast concentration' move that triangle all the way to the right to 4.5. This will tell you how many mL. of just the thick yeast on the bottom you will need. You do not need any of the clear stuff. Then estimate the amount you have in your jar and then make a starter with it. After the starter is finished, let it settle so you can determine the new amount. If its enough, decant and pitch. If you need more than step it up.

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Kmcogar

Recipes 

Can you pitch too much yeast?

fxdude

Recipes 

Now I'm actually confused. I want to make a starter with washed yeast but the Mr Malty calculator only tells you how much washed yeast to use if you want to pitch directly into a fermenter, it doesn't tell you the size of liters or how much to use in a starter.

pabloj13

Recipes 

Try Mr. Malty in conjunction with http://www.yeastcalc.com/

Mr. Malty will tell you how many mL of yeast solids you need (and thus how many billion cells you currently have. YeastCalc can tell you how to step it up to get the cell count you need.

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