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Originally Posted by oooFishy
A few obvious questions to you guys-
After you wash yeast and store it for a while like it was illustrated, how do you then go about actually using that yeast for your next batch. I'm not really sure what a yeast starter is actually. Do you do this with dry yeast? I've only been using liquid so far...
Why do you need to let the washed yeast sit for so long before using it?
How do you get the yeast from your primary (assuming you go this method to get the more flocculating yeasties) separated from all that trub?
Also, it seems insane to pitch wort directly to a unclean primary vessel with the yeast cake already there... Or would you do this only with secondary? Anyone ever have sanitation issues?
Thanks for helping out an aspiring newbie brewer
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A yeast starter is a mini batch of unhopped wort that you use to grow yeast. One of the first thing that the yeasties do after you pitch is to multiply. You can increase the number of yeast dramatically by making a mini wort just for growing the yeast. That way there will be enough yeast for your beer and they'll start fermenting right away and won't spend a lot of energy multiplying. Generally, people do this with liquid yeast. Dry yeast usually have a large enough cell count in a pack that you don't need to worry about a starter. The other reason to use a starter is to make sure that your yeast are still alive and viable. If they don't ferment the starter you know they're no good anymore without wasting a full batch of beer.
You can use the washed yeast immediately.
The whole point of washing the yeast is to separate it from the trub. By mixing the trub with water, the yeast end up back in suspension and the heavier hop particles and other junk settle back to the bottom of the jar. If you carefully pour the liquid off the stuff that's settled, you'll have mostly yeast in the new jar. Wait for a few days and the yeast will fall out of suspension and the bottom of the jar will have a layer of yeast on it.
As for repitching directly into a "dirty" fermenter, I've done that several times with great results. Really, the primary isn't dirty. The beer you racked out of the primary was clean, right? You're just pouring more beer into the container. The only problem that you might encounter is that some of the flavors from the previous beer could transfer to your new brew. This can be minimized by brewing the same (or very similar) beer or going for a darker style in the second beer.
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