Washing yeast after adding coffee...

I am currently doing an extract kit from Northern Brewer - Peace Coffee Porter Stout.

I just added the coffee right to the primary after two weeks (4 ounces of coffee beans, coarsely ground). It has another week left or so, but was planning some things out and had a question.

Since I added the coffee to the primary, can I still go ahead and wash the yeast from this batch? Will the coffee affect the yeast in any way? Will it separate out during the washing process?

Thanks,

Hey Thile, as long as you do a thorough washing, I doubt the coffee would affect it. Hop resins can bind to the outside of yeast cells and carry flavor over batch to batch, but I don't think that is a risk with the coffee, especially since you didn't boil it. You could always just try it and give it a sniff. Interesting question.

What does the yeast smell like? How do we know if it's good to begin with as far as smelling it... Obviously doing a starter and getting a good krausen on the starter constitutes a viable yeast strain but what about in regards to smell? I don't know if I've smelt the yeast before other than whatever was in my glass before consumption

I guess what I'm asking, other than the opinions of everybody in regards to how many generations of yeast you can go w/o needing to get a fresh strain (and you know as well as I do there are tons of different opinions on that topic), how could you tell if your yeast is off w/ your sense of smell?

I was planning on giving it a try but was talking with oTown about it and he suggested I ask on here...

I'll let ya know how it goes - since we're going by your guide!

I figured it would be all right, but was curious since we're new to the whole deal.

bargain not deal

I always get a big whiff of yeast when I open up a white labs vial and the air comes rushing out. That's how I know what it smells like. As far as smelling it I was somewhat joking but mainly meant if you get a coffee smell you'll want to wash it some more or ditch the yeast. For determining if it's healthy, I'd go by its performance during fermentation and smell/flavor of the finished beer.

Yeast washing 1b was a fail. I should have poured everything out of the carboy and separated from there. Ended up losing almost all of the yeast. It was pretty gross with coffee too, so not sure how well it would have worked... Needed some separation from the coffee too before bottling... Have to take an inventory when I get home, some of the bottles were a little more full than normal - the bottling wand screwed up do to the grounds so it was a mess and a struggle. Live and learn.

Aw man sorry to hear that. Sounds like the coffee made quite the mess of things. Where did it settle in the carboy when you added the wash water? Did it go to the bottom?

It's all good, I had ordered dry yeast in case it didn't work, so I got to go ahead and brew Sunday. (Tho I may have over did it with adding honey and brown sugar to the brew).

I had coffee all over the place, but yeah it went to the bottom. I would have liked to have seen what I could have captured. I am not sure I would have wanted to brew with it after adding the coffee tho.