Yeast, or just trub?

Picture below. I grabbed some trub from an IPA I just racked. Looks like it's just trub. Is there any yeast in there?

If you poured out all that was left in the carboy the yeast is there. How long since the harvest to taking the picture?

Yes, boat loads.

flars said:

If you poured out all that was left in the carboy the yeast is there. How long since the harvest to taking the picture?

Click to expand...

Just filled up one mason jar and stopped. Probably one hour since harvest.

skunkfunk said:

Just filled up one mason jar and stopped. Probably one hour since harvest.

Click to expand...

If you swirled up the carboy, waited about a half hour and then poured, you do have quite a bit of yeast. Wait a bit and you will see a yeast layer on top. You would have gotten more yeast by adding a quart of water, swirling, and then pouring out a quart. You do have enough of the yeast to do a starter for your next brew.

flars said:

If you swirled up the carboy, waited about a half hour and then poured, you do have quite a bit of yeast. Wait a bit and you will see a yeast layer on top. You would have gotten more yeast by adding a quart of water, swirling, and then pouring out a quart. You do have enough of the yeast to do a starter for your next brew.

Click to expand...

Ah-ha. I should probably dump this one. I did not pour water, didn't swirl anything, and did not pour. Just scooped it out of the bucket. Live and learn.

Thanks.

skunkfunk said:

Ah-ha. I should probably dump this one. I did not pour water, didn't swirl anything, and did not pour. Just scooped it out of the bucket. Live and learn.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Don't dump it. You have yeast in there. Boil some water. Cool the water. Pour what you have in a quart jar. Fill it with the cooled water. Swirl. Wait for the trub to start settling. Pour off the liquid which will contain almost all the yeast.

flars said:

Don't dump it. You have yeast in there. Boil some water. Cool the water. Pour what you have in a quart jar. Fill it with the cooled water. Swirl. Wait for the trub to start settling. Pour off the liquid which will contain almost all the yeast.

Click to expand...

don't do this, just leave as is and use it in your next beer. there isn't a brewery anywhere in the world adding boiled water to yeast slurry and for very good reasons. if your beer and yeast cake are free of infection why add anything to it? washing yeast wastes viable yeast down the drain.

eastoak said:

don't do this, just leave as is and use it in your next beer. there isn't a brewery anywhere in the world adding boiled water to yeast slurry and for very good reasons. if your beer and yeast cake are free of infection why add anything to it? washing yeast wastes viable yeast down the drain.

Click to expand...

+1. There's nothing wrong with what you have in the jar.

That's pretty much what I did last week harvesting a quart of 2124 Bohemian lager slurry off a batch of dunkel. It sits in my fridge waiting to be pitched on a Maibock (about 1.071 gravity, lots of cells needed since it's a lager) that I hope to brew Thursday (I'm looking at the 15lb sack of grains).

Take a moment to read this - http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/01/yeast-washing-revisited.html

eastoak said:

don't do this, just leave as is and use it in your next beer. there isn't a brewery anywhere in the world adding boiled water to yeast slurry and for very good reasons. if your beer and yeast cake are free of infection why add anything to it? washing yeast wastes viable yeast down the drain.

Click to expand...

+2. Keep it simple. I'm not sure this is the case, but I'm speculating that one of the reason so many people "rinse" yeast is because of the Brew Strong episode that aired a few years ago. I did notice that recently on one of their Q&A shows, Jamil didn't seem to recommend it anymore.

I'm in the process of rinsing my WY1056 American Ale Yeast. I will be brewing an Amber Ale with it in a couple of days.
The last brew with this yeast was an Irish Stout. The trub and remaining beer was dark black. I don't want to add that to my Amber Ale.

I could be wrong but I don't think there's any problem with decanting the beer and adding boiled water. Woodlands blog showed that most of the bacteria in the slurry is found in the beer layer. If you are using it soon, there's no need. But, if you're not going to use it for a while, you can reduce bacteria levels by replacing the beer with water. Woodland also showed decreased viability for storage in the presence of alcohol.