Yeast Washing Illustrated

Sounds like its working then! I rarely see much activity in a starter, except some creamy goodness if a stir bar is going. And some bubbling activity. But no real krausen

I don't see any bubbles on the surface, the stir bar was stopped most of the day and no foam / krausen. I was trying to get extra oxygen in, hence shaking with yeast pitched. Going to try and rig some sort of air filter & pump air in.

johnpcook1 said:

I havnt heard that before. Thats interesting. Ive always aerated the starter wort before pitching the yeast into it, like I would a batch or wort, then put an airlock (S-type bubbler) on it. Is that not a good way to do it??

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From what I've read ( mostly in this thread) it's how the yeast work. In the presence of oxygen, they eat and happily multiply. Without oxygen, they eat and produce alcohol, but don't reproduce at the same rate when oxygen is present.

When brewing, you oxygenate the wort to kick start the reproduction. The yeast multiplies, then the oxygen runs out and they start making your alcohol.

Alcohol isn't the goal of a starter. The goal is increasing viable yeast and getting them geared up to produce alcohol once you pitch. That being the goal, an oxygen-rich environment is idea for your starter in order to encourage reproduction.

That's why stir plates are used. They keep the yeast suspended and increase the surface area exposed to oxygen with the vortex...

Xtant said:

From what I've read ( mostly in this thread) it's how the yeast work. In the presence of oxygen, they eat and happily multiply. Without oxygen, they eat and produce alcohol, but don't reproduce at the same rate when oxygen is present.

When brewing, you oxygenate the wort to kick start the reproduction. The yeast multiplies, then the oxygen runs out and they start making your alcohol.

Alcohol isn't the goal of a starter. The goal is increasing viable yeast and getting them geared up to produce alcohol once you pitch. That being the goal, an oxygen-rich environment is idea for your starter in order to encourage reproduction.

That's why stir plates are used. They keep the yeast suspended and increase the surface area exposed to oxygen with the vortex...

Click to expand...

Seems like a reasonable explanation to me. Thanks for the info!

I Finaly got to my LHBS today & got some yeast. Asked them, they seemed to think all fine "just do another starter". I added some more DME, ran everything up & had quite a bit of krausen visible, even with stirplate on. My problem obviously was in numbers, not lack of yeast.
I pitched the starter when the wort was ready, then had an interesting thought: Does one pitch the whole starter, or let them settle out and throw the clear fluid away? My idea is to pitch while there is good activity going & they are really ready to tackle the larger wort.

Seems like person preference. I've not read one way or the other. Some pitch it all; others decant, then pitch.

I toss it all in. Seems to me like there are two yeasts in there: those actively attacking the sugars and those that have grown bored and dropped out of the fight until something more exciting comes along. You want both. You want the ones already riled up to kick off your fermentation while their buddies come out of their slumber.

Of course, this is purely my opinion and anecdotal and just goes along with the imaginary bar fight I picture in my head when I pitch...

I stored some yeast samples back in Jan, tried them out today and no activity Not sure how long they are viable for but they were sealed up pretty tight in the jars. One was a lager yeast, 830 and an Irish Red, dont remember. I see no activity in the IR starter... and maybe a little in the 830, kinda hard to tell.

damn that 830 was some great yeast

there are a few bubbles when i shake the 830 but not many...maybe more time?

I used 2 liters of water...120grs DME

Before shaking...







After...maybe some life there after 24 hrs

Awesome thread! With my current living situation I have to get all my yeast brought in from out of the country and this plus the freeze banking will let me become essentially self sustaining with my yeast cultures once I get them here.

At the very least I should only need to have friends bring me new packets every year or 2.

Xtant said:

From what I've read ( mostly in this thread) it's how the yeast work. In the presence of oxygen, they eat and happily multiply. Without oxygen, they eat and produce alcohol, but don't reproduce at the same rate when oxygen is present.

That's why stir plates are used. They keep the yeast suspended and increase the surface area exposed to oxygen with the vortex...

Click to expand...

I have never seen the explanation before and now the stirplate makes sense.

Could you get a similar effect as the stirplate with an aquarium air pump? As long as you set up some kind of filter on the incoming air and maybe went for a different shaped (tall and narrow?) flask. Maybe mount the air input inside a tube which is then set inside the flask to make sure you got maximum liquid movement.

MangoMead said:

Could you get a similar effect as the stirplate with an aquarium air pump? As long as you set up some kind of filter on the incoming air and maybe went for a different shaped (tall and narrow?) flask. Maybe mount the air input inside a tube which is then set inside the flask to make sure you got maximum liquid movement.

Click to expand...

With the right geometry you could probably get achieve a similar result to stirring and orbital shaking.

So, I've read through most of this thread, about 125 pages worth and haven't come across this yet.

I have yeast from a porter, WLP002, I racked the beer out of the primary into bottling bucket this weekend, pre-boiled and sanitized two mason jars, and poured the yeast cake into the mason jars. I'm hoping to brew this beer this weekend. My plans were to reuse the yeast from the porter. And, yes I realize there might be some minute porter character, which might be good in this.

My question is the yeast in the jars doesn't seem to be "white." I have only decanted them once, shortly after removing it from the fermenter, but there doesn't seem to be much of a change in the color of the yeast.

Picture in next post is what the yeast looks like.

Looks like mine so far. Whether light or dark beer,the water turns that sort of color in the jars.

The water hasn't been dark in my light beers. I'm wondering more about the actual yeast color. Its not the white/beige that I've seen with lighter beers. So, I'm wondering if its normal for the yeast to stay dark when washing from porters stouts, dark Belgians, etc?

It looks fine to me. You can try swirling it all around in the jar again and seeing if it separates better (mine do sometimes)

I just tried and in the small jar I was able to make the whole "cake" flip and stay together. This yeast stays clumped like no other I've seen, seems to be the norm for this strain though.

If it's from a porter or stout, it's going to be dark

Unless you wash it more, and then add sanitized water.

bolus14 said:

So, I've read through most of this thread, about 125 pages worth and haven't come across this yet.

I have yeast from a porter, WLP002, I racked the beer out of the primary into bottling bucket this weekend, pre-boiled and sanitized two mason jars, and poured the yeast cake into the mason jars. I'm hoping to brew this beer this weekend. My plans were to reuse the yeast from the porter. And, yes I realize there might be some minute porter character, which might be good in this.

My question is the yeast in the jars doesn't seem to be "white." I have only decanted them once, shortly after removing it from the fermenter, but there doesn't seem to be much of a change in the color of the yeast.

Picture in next post is what the yeast looks like.

Click to expand...

the other day i went to my local brewery, Drake's, for some yeast and the only tank they had ready for pulling yeast was the porter tank. when it came time to pitch i just poured off as much of the dark beer as i could off of the top and poured 1/4 cup or so into the pale ale i'd just made. the finished beer did not have any porter taste and the color did not seem any darker to me.

I see that the big jar in the process is usually a mason jar or something with a large mouth on it. Would it be ok to use a 1 gallon glass jug (like a milk jug, or one that's carboy shaped)? I guess what I'm asking is would the smaller neck mess up the pour into the mason jars once it has settled?

USMCPayne, I'm sure you'd be fine!

Guys, I was out of time the other day, so instead of washing properly, after racking the beer out of the carboy I just swirled the remenants and threw them into a big mason jar. I know I've got a bunch of gunk in there with the yeast, do you think I need to wash it before using it again?

I was thinking: use it to make a starter, and then wash that as per usual. Or would this even be necessary?

I would use it, especially if you are brewing the same style, or similar, with it.

Depends on how long you are going to wait to use it.

If you are going to use it fairly quickly (within a week or so), I'd use it as is. Read the first post in this thread to find out how much to use.

If it's going to be longer than that, I'd wash it.

Sweet, thanks!

Well, I brewed a batch of Great Lakes Christmas Ale yesterday and made a starter with yeast I had washed from the last batch I made of it from back in January. The airlock is bubbling away as we speak less than 12 hours after I pitched the starter! :rockin:

So I'm attempting to wash yeast for the first time. This is a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale yeast I harvested from their bottles. I stepped it up a few times and pitched into my own Pale Ale recipe. It fully fermented out to my expected FG (1.016) and I just racked to dry hop the beer. I boiled and cooled water according to the instructions here, poured it in the fermenter, let it settle for 25 minutes then poured it into the gallon jug. It left a LOT of the hop material behind. Now I'm letting it settle again in the gallon jug for 25 minutes or so. After about 15 this is what it looks like.

It LOOKS like there is a substantial amount of yeast at the bottom (due to the really light colored sediment at the bottom, it matches the color of the yeast I washed from harvesting). There is liquid separated on top, I understand I want to toss that? The yeast looks like grain trub to me, is that just because it has fermented and changed colors?

Your second picture looks perfect. You're not going to separate out all the trub and hops from yeast, so you'll see some other stuff in there.

LOL, I know the second picture looks perfect. That's yeast from the starter I made when harvesting from SNPA, not from the actual brew. The first picture is the one I'm concerned about, thats the yeast I'm currently washing. The second picture is for reference in the color of the yeast at the bottom of the 1 gallon jar.

I'm getting ready to start doing a "Farmhouse" yeast strain and this is going to help a bunch.

I think you should let it sit a bit longer. Yes, you want to decant the mostly clear liquid, but also yes, there isn't a lot of difference between the liquid and what has settled out, so you will lost a lot of yeast if you decant it right now.

It has been a few hours - how does it look? The yeast could be low-flocculating, so they are still suspended.

I let it sit a bit longer but it didn't separate much more, except for the liquid at the top. So I went ahead and poured it into my separate jars and chilled it. We'll see how it turns out.

So I've been washing yeasts for many batches now thanks to this thread! I follow the directions and use a 64 oz growler for the large jar. But...I wonder if I'm doing something wrong...I only end up with about a 1/4" of yeast at bottom of a pint sized jar...any thoughts?

That is a little lower than I've gotten, but not crazy low. You do lose a lot in the washing process.

How long are you letting the slurry settle before the decanting steps? The longer you wait, the less yeast you will get, but the quicker you transfer, the more trub/hops/break you will get. It's a balancing act.

Yeah I usually leave it more than 20 min at both steps

Next time, just try doing a little less time. For this one you'll just need a bigger starter. No big deal.

mtnagel said:

Next time, just try doing a little less time. For this one you'll just need a bigger starter. No bid deal.

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Just curious, how does less settling time equal more yeast? Seems counterintuitive.

I'm talking about the in between steps where you are letting the slurry settle for roughly 20 mins and then pouring off the top layer and discarding the bottom layer. The trub you are trying to separate the yeast from falls faster, but the yeast is still settling also, so if you wait too long, more yeast settles, so when you save the top layer, you are getting less yeast. And conversely, when you give less settling time, you get more yeast, but also more of the stuff you don't want in the washed yeast portion. Make sense?

I just found this site to buy vials, similar to white labs', for saving yeast. I didn't know that they were soda bottle blanks! Neat. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/giant-test-tubes-6-pack-baby-soda-bottles/p/CE-TTBSB06/

Cheers,
Artchemical

Primary: Belgian Wit (brewed with Earl Grey tea)
Primary #2: Kristmas Kölsch (brewed with Carmel Apple tea and baked apples)
Bottled: American Brown (brewed with oak and bourbon)
Bottled: Assam Scottish Ale (brewed with Assam black tea)

ARTCHEMICAL said:

I just found this site to buy vials, similar to white labs', for saving yeast. I didn't know that they were soda bottle blanks! Neat. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/giant-test-tubes-6-pack-baby-soda-bottles/p/CE-TTBSB06/

Cheers,
Artchemical

Primary: Belgian Wit (brewed with Earl Grey tea)
Primary #2: Kristmas Kölsch (brewed with Carmel Apple tea and baked apples)
Bottled: American Brown (brewed with oak and bourbon)
Bottled: Assam Scottish Ale (brewed with Assam black tea)

Click to expand...

I have thought about doing something similar, wash the yeast into 3 pint jars. Put them in the fridge for a couple of days, then sanitize the test tubes, a funnel, decant the jars, swirl them around, and pour them into the tubes. :rockin: