Question on yeast washing technique

So, I've read the sticky on yeast washing and I'm a bit confused. Today is the first time I've tried to save yeast. So, I poured some sterile water into the fermenter and swirled it around as directed. After 20 minutes or so, I have something like this picture 1. If I understand the process correctly, I'm supposed to leave all the settled stuff behind and just take the liquid off the top. But, by looking at this picture, it seems to me the yeast has settled out on the bottom and that is what I want to take.

I know there is going to be some trub that I want to leave, but by just taking the water on the top, it seems I'm throwing most of the yeast out. Can someone clarify this for me?

About to try this for the first time today too. I would think in 20 minutes the trub would fall due to weight and the yeast would be mixed in the liquid requiring more time for it to settle. Not sure though...

I don't see much "trub" in my sample. For me, the bottom 1" on my fermenter is the yeast that I want to save. I'm confused...

When you swirl it up, the live yeast stay in suspension. What's settled out is all the dead stuff and other particulate matter. Definitely save the liquid slurry and throw out what settles out after 20 minutes.

wow, I washed yeast for the first time yesterday and had the same concern and my name is matt too...weird.

Anyway, I decided to pour the yeasty water out of my carboy by hand because it was too shallow to siphon for me. I got mostly yeasty water in the first pour, but the bottom sediment got kicked up and into my 2nd jar. I'll probably use my 1st jar.

1)BTW, anyone have a video/sticky link for making a starter with washed yeast? I am not too clear on amount of this yeast for a 5 gal batch.

2) What does slanting mean? Sorry I'm a noobrewer

I am definitely no expert but have been washing/reusing yeast for some time now and have never had a problem. A smaller container is much more manageable than your fermenter for washing yeast.

If I were you I would sterilize a 1-2 qt container (like a jar or growler) then swirl all the liquid in your fermenter and pour it into your container. Set that in your refrigerator for about 10-20 min. You should see the heavier sediment settle out quite quickly. Then get a second container (can be smaller) and give your yeast a slight swirl to re-suspend the yeast settled on top, then pour the top liquid into your second container leaving the heavier trub behind. From here, if you seal and refrigerate, you should notice fairly clean yeast settle to the bottom after a few hours or so. This will be your useable yeast for your next batch. If you want you can pour off some of the liquid after a day or so when the yeast has all settled.

Because the yeast is lighter than the trub, the goal is to simply do the best you can to seperate off as much of the trub from the yeast. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you are right, if you let it settle too much everything settles and it is hard to get any yeast out. You need to agitate things a little to get the yeast back into suspension so you can pour it off.

I hope I didn't make this more confusing because it's actually quite simple.

Good luck!

And for bloussant, slanting is taking a pure yeast sample (like straight from the original pack or vial) and placing a very small amount in a tray with an agar-type material to preserve so that later you can step up with multiple starters. This is a fairly advanced operation and takes some special equipment to pull off. It's not rocket science, just more complicated than just reusing yeast.

As for how much yeast to use there are a number of factors to consider (batch size, OG, viability of your yeast, etc.), I would go to Mr. Malty's sight and do a little reading. Once you get your head around the concept, calculating the amount of yeast for your batch is not too difficult. Mr. Malty has a calculator that many use when trying to figure out yeast pitching rates.

Good luck!

Thanks Jmiltime. I'll look at Mr. Malty in order to wean myself off of ordering a vile of yeast every time I want to brew.

Sun tea jugs are great for yeast washing. They have a spigot that's up off the bottom. Add your water to your fermenter, swirl it up and let it sit for a few minutes to get the heaviest stuff out of suspension and pour it into the sanitized tea jug. Let that sit and then you can use the spigot to drain above the sediment and fill your jars. Easy peasy. Just make sure it's all sanitized, including the spigot. Put a few inches of starsan in the jug, shake it around and drain it through the spigot.

Good idea ChshreCat, never heard of using a tea jug with a spigot! That's the beauty of this site.

I wonder if I can put my old Mr. Beer fermentor to use the way CheshreCat describes the sun tea jugs. Too bad its not as transparent as the sun tea jugs.

I know I've screwed this up my first time. I failed to realize that this is an iterative process. I captured 3-small pint jars and refrigerated them. Each one has only about 1/4" in the bottom of the jar, so I think I threw most of my yeast out. The good things is I've got enough to do another starter, so all is not lost. But, I don't have nearly the yeast volume I had in that first photo. Next time, I'll do it differently and I'm quite confident I'll get a good crop.

That first photo shows all the trub settled out, with hardly any yeast settled out. The yeast is what's making the liquid appear cloudy.

I find it only takes like 5 minutes for most of the non-yeast to settle out, at least for 1056.

As described in post above, I didn't get much yeast harvested. As I said, the good part is I've got enough to do another starter. I'm using two Spaghetti sauce jars and one old jelly jar. Seems to work fine!

bloussant said:

wow, I washed yeast for the first time yesterday and had the same concern and my name is matt too...weird.

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Just to add to the weirdness, I washed my first yeast yesterday and my name is Matt also!
I'm not really looking at reusing this lot but wanted to pratice to get the process down for when I actually want/need to. From other posts on this your collections look ok 2-0turbo, well at least from what I know (which is very little). As others have said you want the heavy crap to fall to the bottom and just keep the lighter alive yeast that are floating in the liquid making it cloady. I saw one other post that someone had only a very thin layer of yeast ontop of the trub in the jar, they shoke it up let is sit a while, decanted into another sterilised jar and was left with a nice thick layer of yeast that had previously been mixed in with all the trub in the first jar. So just remember hope is not all lost yet.

2-0turbo said:

As described in post above, I didn't get much yeast harvested. As I said, the good part is I've got enough to do another starter. I'm using two Spaghetti sauce jars and one old jelly jar. Seems to work fine!

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I got about the same amount. Now, I know there are ways to calculate the amount of yeast needed via Mr. Malty, but would a low OG beer require more than what is in your spaghetti jars, matt?

I can't tell the size of your jars Matt, but actually it seems that you have plenty of yeast from thos pics. You only need about 2oz of viable yeast (solid only) for most brews with OG at or below 1.055(ish). And if you use a starter, you will only need to pitch about 1.5oz of solid viable yeast for most mid gravity beers. I know there are a lot of factors but you should have enough yeast there for at least a couple more batches.

Sure you can salvage more yeast as you get more familiar with the process, but it looks like you did a good job and have a nice collection.

Well done!

ChshreCat said:

Sun tea jugs are great for yeast washing. They have a spigot that's up off the bottom. Add your water to your fermenter, swirl it up and let it sit for a few minutes to get the heaviest stuff out of suspension and pour it into the sanitized tea jug. Let that sit and then you can use the spigot to drain above the sediment and fill your jars. Easy peasy. Just make sure it's all sanitized, including the spigot. Put a few inches of starsan in the jug, shake it around and drain it through the spigot.

Click to expand...

Now THERE'S an idea! Woot!

Jmiltime said:

I can't tell the size of your jars Matt, but actually it seems that you have plenty of yeast from thos pics. You only need about 2oz of viable yeast (solid only) for most brews with OG at or below 1.055(ish). And if you use a starter, you will only need to pitch about 1.5oz of solid viable yeast for most mid gravity beers. I know there are a lot of factors but you should have enough yeast there for at least a couple more batches.

Sure you can salvage more yeast as you get more familiar with the process, but it looks like you did a good job and have a nice collection.

Well done!

Click to expand...

The small one is about 10 oz and the larger ones are about 14-oz. So, I might have 2 oz between the three jars. But, as I said, I know I've got enough for another batch of beer and I'll do a better job of harvesting next time. Honestly, I can only keep so much as I can only go through it so fast.