daveotero

Recipes 

pdbreen

Recipes 

Yet another "thank you" for the excellent writeup - exactly what I was looking for!

I had two primaries ready for transfer. For the first, I re-used the yeast cake with a new brew (also from instruction/advice on the forums). For the second, I'm washing the yeast using the steps here - only I'll be using the Suntea jar for the second decantation and 8oz jars for storage.

__________________
Atomic Dog Brewery

On Deck: Tripel IPA, Espresso Stout
P: Am Wheat I, Dunkelweizen, Belgian Pale, Palisades Pale
S: SA Shiraz, Kolsch II, Amarillo IPA, Oatmeal Stout, Am Sour, Trio Blanca
K: Ginger Ale, Apfelwein x 2
T: Cascade Pale, Am Wheat II, Centennial IPA, Kolsch, Imperial Stout, Irish Stout, Apfelwein

e^(pi*i) + 1 = 0

thekingofspain

Recipes 

I did a yeast wash with two bottling buckets instead of a big jar. I think it might have worked better than the big jar because the heaver yeast concentrations seem to be at the spigot level for at least my slurry. Since I was already bottling at the time, I already needed the sanitizer so there was no extra cost. Used four 12 oz jars that each filled 1/4 of the way with yeast and no signs of trub.

kappclark

Recipes 

I have had great sucess with this yeast washing technique..

__________________
Bill Clark
Windham, VT
kappclark@yahoo.com

HalfPint

Recipes 

I think this is the best yeast washing instructional I've ever seen. Good job. I've done research over the years and have been doing it just like this for a long time. I wish I would've had this to tell me what to do a long time ago.


Here's a bit of my 2 cents,

I just put the washed slurry into a 2 liter bottle. I let it sit in the fridge for a day or so then decant the top liquid. After that, I just pour into my starter from that 2 liter every time I want to use it (I know it risks contaminating the whole batch, but it's never happened to me!) I initally did this b/c I didn't have any mason jars and my cheap a$$ has been doing it ever since.

thekingofspain

Recipes 

All in favor of renaming HalfPint to 2 Liter say I.

Very good idea too.

Blackhawkbrew

Recipes 

I just started to boil my jars for my first yeast washing attempt. I had a, probably silly, question, I ferment in a bucket and don't use a carboy. Is there any difference in the gathering of the yeast between the two?

HalfPint

Recipes 

Nope, I typically do it from a bucket and just drain it out of my bottling spigot.

Blackhawkbrew

Recipes 

HalfPint,
So do you transfer the slurry from your fermentation bucket to a bottling bucket and then into jars, like thekingofspain described a few posts back?

HalfPint

Recipes 

No. I have one plastic bucket (Ale Pale) since I don't really use them any more, but It's also my bottling bucket. I put the spigot on it a while back. It doesn't leak, so I occasionally ferment in it when all my other carboys are being used.

This is how I do it.

1) Fill 2 liter up with cold water.
2) Pour that water into a pot and boil for 10 minutes. (Last 3 mins of boil put a lid on it.)
3) Let cool in water bath (with lid on) till it's about 70-80* F.
4) Pour that cooled boiled water into your bucket, carboy, better bottle, or whatever you use and swish around to get the yeast and trub into suspension.
5) If you don't have a spigot (I obviously don't in my carboys,) just pour all that liquid into a 2 liter via a sanitized funnel (if no spigot on fermenter) and leave in the refridgerator for about an 30 mins to an hour. Look at the diagram on this site http://http://hbd.org/carboy/yeast_washing.htm. You want the suspended yeast.
6) Take 2 liter out of the fridge and decant top liquid (suspended yeast) into another two liter and discard trub on bottom of first bottle.
7) Put into fridge for up to a couple of months.

Note,
At this point, it's the exact same as pitching from a tube of yeast. I typically put about 3 turkey basters worth (3 fl oz?) of washed yeast into a starter or directly into your wort.

This isn't rocket science. Use the same sanitation techniques you use when you're making beer and you shouldn't have any problems.