yeast washing

ok this is something i have never done but right now i have a Belgian dubble in primary and im using wyeast 3787 but i would like to reuse this yeast for a Belgian strong. i have pitched wort right onto a used yeast cake before but if i dont have to do that again i would prefer not to. what do i need to do to clean the yeast....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Its stickied at the very top of this Subforum.

Above that's a really good thread on slanting yeast cultures too, take a look at that, might plant a bug in ur head to start that. I know it did for me lol

ok i get that i read the link but how do you separate the trub from the yeast and do you at any point dump the trub? i would like to have a yeast inventory im just trying to figure out how to do this

You wash the yeast by pouring the white yeast and clear liquid off into another sanitized jar. You keep doing that until you have almost all yeast and no trub. Washing it!

When you mix the yeast/trub/beer with fresh water and you let it settle. You should get 3 layer. One that is beer/water, one that is the yeast which you can find pictures of, but its like a creamy milky layer. Then the nasty trub at the bottom. What I do is then dump the two top layers into a sanitized mason jar that has some boiled/cooled water in it. You can take it ever further but when I get clear enough liquid I stop, then just reuse.

tally350z said:

When you mix the yeast/trub/beer with fresh water and you let it settle. You should get 3 layer. One that is beer/water, one that is the yeast which you can find pictures of, but its like a creamy milky layer. Then the nasty trub at the bottom. What I do is then dump the two top layers into a sanitized mason jar that has some boiled/cooled water in it. You can take it ever further but when I get clear enough liquid I stop, then just reuse.

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Better explanation then mine!!

Theres some good videos on youtube as well if u'd like to see it in action. that'll give ya a good idea of just what the layering looks like.

How long can I keep this in a fridge?

For yeast washing samples how many do you end up with?

I recently saw a post by Yooper pointing to a link that argued that washing might not be worth the effort for short term storage.

The trub layer has as much or more viable yeast as the milky yeast layer. And the dead yeasts and proteins from the break material are yeast nutrients. I'll see if I can find it and post here.

Or maybe Yooper will show up and post it again.

I personally wash by repeatedly pouring off the creamy layer a few times into several jars then cold crashing the jars. I have viability (using a starter) after several months by simply storing in the fridge in a jar topped with a little water.

I usually end combining all my small washed jars into one for space reasons (I have about 8-10 jars in my 2nd fridge). But you could easily get several usable washed samples from a single yeast cake.

Edited to add:
Instead of pitching onto the entire yeast cake, you can always just scoop out a cup or two and direct pitch that.

avm221 said:

How long can I keep this in a fridge?

For yeast washing samples how many do you end up with?

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a long time (> a year ) if done well

as many as you want, i usually did 4. nowadays i just set it up so that I use the same yeast in 2-6 beers in a row so I can just scoop what I need (0.5-2 cups slurry) and pitch.

also, you don't need to be rid of all the trub, its a very small volume comparative to the next beer and will have no effect.

If I didnt get rid to of trub could I just syphoin the yeast/trub into sanitized beer bottels and cap them. Then when I want to pitch it just pop the cap snd poor it .in

Here's the link that argues against washing in favor of just keeping the whole yeast/trub layer after pouring off the top watery bit:

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/01/yeast-washing-revisited.html