Hefe question

Hi all, I have a question about a Hefe that I just brewed. I have 5 gallons of Hefe in a 6.5 gal carboy right now. The first day was very active and I had to remove my air lock and attach a blow off tube. The beer foamed quite a bit into the bucket. I removed the blow off tube and attached an air lock today. When I emptied the bucket to clean it, I noticed a thick layer of white sludge on the bottom of the bucket. This appeared to be yeast that may have taken a ride on the foam. I wonder if I lost too much of my yeast from the blow off. Any ideas?

That's fairly standard with a blow off tube. 99.9% you're fine.

Thanks, it's been a while since I needed a blow off tube and could not remember losing that much yeast. Seems a shame to dump that nice yeast down the drain. I wonder if you could blow off into preboiled water and harvest the sediment for re-pitching?

Since it was below the blow-off water level I would say yes.