washing yeast

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OHIOSTEVE

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no question, I am just washing yeast right now.. I love this hobby. So much to learn!!!
 
I have a queastion that I havn't had answered to my satisfaction

1st I would like to clarify something. "Rinsing" yeast is what we do alot of with sanitary water and transfer to disinfected containers. "Washing" yeast is what some brewerys do when they harvest yeast by treating it (with something) to kill bateria and/or seperate the yeast they want.

?Qeastion"

Could I wash my beer yeast with metabisulfite to kill bateria, in a wash/rinse cycle, or are beer yeast not as tolerant as wine yeast to mete'?
 
I used boiled vessels the first time.. star san this time ( boiled water) I will see what happens.
 
OHIOSTEVE said:
I used boiled vessels the first time.. star san this time ( boiled water) I will see what happens.
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me too! done it twice for my self and once for buddy. all cultures look stable

longest in fridge 3 months shortests 2 weeks...


all are clear and dormant no bulging mason jar caps... screwd tight
 
I used some 4 month old S-04 in an oatmeal stout. took right off in my starter and finished the beeer fine.. I wonder if I can just decant and pitch with NO starter?
 
Don't do that. You need to build up a starter unless you have several cups of washed yeast solids in jar. According to mr. malty, yeast viability drops pretty quick. A starter is cheap insurance and a proper, healthy picth of yeast will result in better beer every time.
 
Ichthy said:
Don't do that. You need to build up a starter unless you have several cups of washed yeast solids in jar. According to mr. malty, yeast viability drops pretty quick. A starter is cheap insurance and a proper, healthy picth of yeast will result in better beer every time.
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thanks.. I feel like I am making beer...to make beer when I use a starter. I need to get some liquid malt to use rather than mashing two row for my starters.
 
I just mash 2row myself for starter wort. If I have extra jars left over from garden season, I'm going to can starter wort in the pressure canner. That way I'll have a few gallons of starter ready to go and it will be in convenient 1 qt jars. I'm too cheap to buy DME...:p
 
ok I hate to be picky but my qeastion is still un answered.

What "kind" of solution can I "wash" my yeast with before I "rinse" it to put it in storage that will kill or stunt any bacteria that find there way in before I store in the fridge. I've never had a problem with my beer going wild because I rinse all, put in fridge, and before I pitch I "smell", bring it to room temp, and stir in some wort. I have so much on hand that if I find a stinky one I just dump it.

I just know that (empiricaly) relying on my nose cant catch everything.
 
ChristianAlpha-RuBrew said:
ok I hate to be picky but my qeastion is still un answered.

What "kind" of solution can I "wash" my yeast with before I "rinse" it to put it in storage that will kill or stunt any bacteria that find there way in before I store in the fridge. I've never had a problem with my beer going wild because I rinse all, put in fridge, and before I pitch I "smell", bring it to room temp, and stir in some wort. I have so much on hand that if I find a stinky one I just dump it.

I just know that (empiricaly) relying on my nose cant catch everything.
Click to expand...

Quote from "The Brewers Handbook" by Ted Goldammer:

Brewers Yeast
Yeast Washing
Pitching yeasts collected from brewery fermentations are never absolutely free of microbiological infection. In spite of whatever care and sanitary precautions are taken, some bacteria and wild yeast will contaminate the pitching yeast. The pitching yeast can contain healthy yeast cells and trub (dead yeast cells and organic residues) and may contain 5 to 15% dry solids (35). To minimize microbiological infection, brewery yeast can be washed using the following procedures:

Distilled or Sterile Water Wash
In the first method, the yeast slurry and cold, distilled or sterile water are mixed thoroughly in a decantation tank. The yeast is allowed to settle and the supernatant water is decanted, taking with it dead cells, trub, grain, and hop particles.

Acid Wash
The second method is to wash the yeast with acids, e.g., tartaric, citric, sodium metabisulfite, sulfuric, or phosphoric acid which is typically the most commonly used acid. Acid washing lowers the pH of the yeast slurry to the point at which bacteria and weak yeast cells are killed off, but it does not harm the healthy yeast cells.

Acid Wash with Ammonium Persulfate
Some brewers use an acid-persulfate combination rather than just acid claiming that it is a more effective treatment than treatment with acid alone. Briggs et al. recommend the addition of a strong oxidizing agent as ammonium persulphate (0.75% w/v) with phosphoric acid (8).

Chlorine Dioxide
Chlorine dioxide, an alternative to distilled water or acid washing, is relatively new to the brewing industry and is gaining acceptance as a method for washing yeast. It kills via microbes by reacting chemically with sulfur-containing amino acids, the building blocks of protein which are used to form cell membranes.
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You will really like having those starters handy. It is way convenient, boiling and cooling starters sucks and definitely feels like making beer to make beer. I collect the last runnings and any extra sparge in a bucket. Add water to about1.040 and can as much as possible. Great way to do business. Another thing is to can water in order to rinse the yeast etc
 
i tried the sterile water wash and the first beer i brewed is putting off an intense amount of sulfur in the first days of fermentation. since this yeast didn't produce any sulfur notes pre-washing, i'm going to conclude the sterile water wash was not effective.
 
That is pretty typical of a lager strain some of them smell like farts the whole way through. How is the beer fermenting?? if you wonder about the yeast after rinsing you can drink the liquid off of the top when it settles and you decant it to see if you taste infection etc.
 
I boiled and cooled a gallon of water, dumped it into my fermenter, swished it around really good and let it sit a half hour. I propped it at an angle since my fermenter has a spigot. I tried to line up where the viable yeast band would be with the spigot. Then I let the yeast/slurry dribble into 4 old star-san'ed glass jars and stuck them in the fridge.

Is it possible I may have done it "right" enough? I only see a tiny layer of trub, a nice whitish layer, and the beerish layer filling the jars. Sound like I got me some yeasties?
 
tvtoms said:
I boiled and cooled a gallon of water, dumped it into my fermenter, swished it around really good and let it sit a half hour. I propped it at an angle since my fermenter has a spigot. I tried to line up where the viable yeast band would be with the spigot. Then I let the yeast/slurry dribble into 4 old star-san'ed glass jars and stuck them in the fridge.

Is it possible I may have done it "right" enough? I only see a tiny layer of trub, a nice whitish layer, and the beerish layer filling the jars. Sound like I got me some yeasties?
Click to expand...


Sound like you have yeast. A way to eliminate more of the trub is to transfer from the bucket to a quart jar. Let rest in the quart jar, then pour into four, 8oz jars.
 
Ichthy said:
Sound like you have yeast. A way to eliminate more of the trub is to transfer from the bucket to a quart jar. Let rest in the quart jar, then pour into four, 8oz jars.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. Yeah I wanted to do it as per the pics and video I found in the yeast forum, but I couldnt find any glass jars large enough for the second decanting step. It seems pretty forgiving, so worth trying.
 
ok... I did my first yeast "WASHING" with 3.3 pH starsan for 20 min. then rinsed with sterile water. Now stored in fridge. I'll let you know how the fermentation goes on my next 5 gallon batch. I got a 15 to do 1st on friday.
 

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