Yeast Washing Illustrated - Page 11

oguss0311 · 02-21-2008, 02:55 AM

Shoot- than I've got another question-
What is the longest that anyone has let washed yeast stay in the fridge and still use it successfully? (The amount of time that I would take to go back to the same strand of yeast 5 times has got to be..........Shoot....maybe over a year!)

**Bernie Brewer** · 02-21-2008, 11:35 PM

I read somewhere that you should only propagate yeast for four generations. Don't jump on me here, I know some people pay no attention to that, but it's what I read.

Ok, let's say you buy a pack of yeast and make a batch of beer. That's one generation. You wash your yeast and collect four jars of yeast. You could do more, or less, I'm just using four as an example. You make four starters and four batches of beer out of those four jars. That's generation 2. You wash your yeast from the last jar and collect four more jars/batches. That's generation 3. Add four more for generation 4 and you have a total of thirteen batches of beer from the original pack. So that's potentially 65 gallon of beer from one pack of yeast. Or 130 gallons if you're like me and brew mainly ten gallon batches. Of course that's assuming you brew with all those saved yeasts before they go bad; they don't last forever.

explosivebeer · 02-22-2008, 01:39 AM

I've heard you can use the yeast for eight or nine generations is you are doing a good job of harvesting it. Realistically, I'll probably only do about four generations of harvests and then start over to make sure I'm still working with good yeast. That'll still yield about 21 batches (one to start, and five for each generation, harvesting the last of each generation).

Then again, one of my harvests has already turned out poorly so expectations may have to be lowered.

As for how long it'll keep in the fridge, I don't know. But if you brew enough, it won't matter!

Moonpile · 02-24-2008, 03:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernie Brewer

I read somewhere that you should only propagate yeast for four generations. Don't jump on me here, I know some people pay no attention to that, but it's what I read.

Ok, let's say you buy a pack of yeast and make a batch of beer. That's one generation. You wash your yeast and collect four jars of yeast. You could do more, or less, I'm just using four as an example. You make four starters and four batches of beer out of those four jars. That's generation 2. You wash your yeast from the last jar and collect four more jars/batches. That's generation 3. Add four more for generation 4 and you have a total of thirteen batches of beer from the original pack. So that's potentially 65 gallon of beer from one pack of yeast. Or 130 gallons if you're like me and brew mainly ten gallon batches. Of course that's assuming you brew with all those saved yeasts before they go bad; they don't last forever.

I'm not an expert on this (never having done it), but I would take the four generations rule to mean that you'd buy yeast (your first generation) and brew a batch. Collect the yeast and let's say you get four jars each time to stick with your example. Those jars are the second generation. Then from each of those you brew another batch and collect four more jars per batch, or 16 jars in the third generation. The fourth generation would then be 4 x 16, or 64.

Given this you'd have 1 + 4 + 16 + 64 = 85 batches off the original yeast. Way more than any homebrewer is going to be able to use before it goes bad unless you're fanatically dedicated to both the particular strain you've chosen and homebrewing to the exclusion of all other life activities.

Am I right about this? Or have I misunderstood something?

Since I don't mind buying yeast sometimes (Wyeast and WhiteLabs both deserve some of my money for all the good they've done homebrewing!) because I'd like to try different ones, why not collect, say, two larger jars from each batch and then have a bigger "base" to start up a correspondingly larger starter with? I'd still get 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 15 batches out of one pack and make it easier to "pitch big".

clemson55 · 02-26-2008, 02:59 AM

I have a couple of questions, I washed some WLP001 the other day after taking my IIPA off of it. Even after going through that it has a bit of a hoppy smell to it is that an issue? Second I have an unopened WLP099 in the fridge which is very clear with a small sediment layer on the bottom and the pictures in this thread all look similar very clear with a nice sediment layer but mine has been sitting for a few days and still has a sort of foggy look it didnt clear. This makes me worry that maybe things werent clean enough and it is infected or something. Anyone have any ideas about that?

beergorila · 03-05-2008, 07:25 AM

OK guys ... wow, I'm confused. Please bear with me here. I've been following all of the yeast washing posts & wiki for a while now, and since Wyeast is no longer offering the Fat Tire strain I figured it was a great time to try my 1st wash.

HOWEVER ... I have this inescapable feeling I did something wrong. In the photo below are the 4 mason jars I harvested from my Fat Tire clone this past weekend. The one on the far left was the last one I filled, yet it looks the most like the other photos in this thread. Did I do something wrong? I did not add more water than was suggested (but there is whirlfloc in the trub).

After the 20 minute wait period there were two extremely different layers (which looked just like the jar on the left now) and of equal layer volume -- they were each 50% of the remaining content at the bottom of the primary. Should I have grabbed more of the trub?? If so I would've had to have poured all of that top layer out which would have equaled about a GALLON of the clearer liquid. I thought I was reading correctly that the trub was all the junk, and what I REALLY wanted was the yeast in suspension and found in the top layer, once everything settled in the primary.

Ummmm .... right?

**Bernie Brewer** · 03-05-2008, 12:38 PM

I don't know how you got such a thick layer on the left, but the ones on the right are what mine usually look like.

beergorila · 03-05-2008, 02:01 PM

Whew! that makes me feel better ... 1st time jitters, along with trying to salvage a discontinued strain, I guess ... Thanks Bern!

s3n8 · 03-07-2008, 02:09 AM

I guess I must have done something wrong... I ended up with 1.5 inches of yeast and trub (I guess) on the bottom of all of my mason jars. How do you "decant" without disturbing the layer of trub on the bottom? I first tried the auto siphon but didnt have enough material to get a good run going. I have a 1liter starter going on my stir plate right now that has a nice layer of krausen on it. Hope its ok. Any way to know for sure?

RoaringBrewer · 03-14-2008, 04:35 PM

So, I'm going to wash yeast for the first time probably this weekend. Here's my question. I racked a batch to secondary last night after about 20 days in primary. I initially planned on brewing and pitching on cake, but no time yesterday. I also initially planned to wash yeast right when I racked (if I couldn't pitch on cake), but also ran out of time for that.

So... basically I just left a little bit of brew on top of the yeast cake and replaced the airlock on the primary carboy. E.g. I have a carboy with a cake and about 1" of beer on top of it, airlocked... Will it still be OK to wash and reuse this yeast when I get around to it? What if I don't get around to it until early next week? Is this any different than what I had before (a primary with cake and 24" of beer on top of it?) or did somehow introducing oxygen (e.g. just unairlocking it while i racked) while racking screw me?