yeast washing

I'm in the middle of washing my yeast and I was wondering if anyone could just give me a little information on what is in each of the layers in the picture. I was assuming that the bottom layer consists mostly of the trub and such, the middle and top layers would be mostly yeast. Am I correct for the most part?

Boy, it's hard to tell in that picture. How long as it been sitting? Usually, I pour off of the "heavy" stuff as soon as it starts to settle, and then do it again with fresh water. Your yeast layer (don't really see one in that picture) should be a thin layer of white creamy yeast.

I'll see if I can find a picture of very distinct layers to show you what I mean.

I can't find a good picture of the three distinct layers. But once you get rid of the heavy solids, and rewash, you should have something like this: (taken from homebrewer99's gallery)

What yeast was it?

I asked because layer 3 looks like the yeast clumps I had in two jugs. One had American Blend, the other was Edinburgh Ale.

Depends on the yeast....that looks like a really flocculant yeast such as WLP002/Wyeast 1968 to me, in which case the yeast is on the bottom.

It was WLP029 yeast, I was making an irish stout

I was looking around and I found a picture on this thread that looks a lot like mine. The picture on that thread shows wlp002 which is a very flocculant strain similar to wlp029, The bottom layer in the picture and in my jar look very similar so I'm assuming that as Buzzcraft said my yeast will be on the bottom

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-highly-flocculant-strains-152080/

If i break up each layer from the picture I posted I would say that layer 3 is the yeast, layer 2 is trub and dead yeast and layer 1 is beer. Does this seem correct?

Here's the what it looks like after I decanted off the top layers, added more water and let it sit for an hour.

DuffMan77 said:

I'm in the middle of washing my yeast and I was wondering if anyone could just give me a little information on what is in each of the layers in the picture. I was assuming that the bottom layer consists mostly of the trub and such, the middle and top layers would be mostly yeast. Am I correct for the most part?

Click to expand...

Layer 3 is larger clumped trub
Layer 2 is small clumped trub
Layer 1 is suspended yeast. This is waht you want to pour off and keep. It contains the yeast you want to keep.

If you look closely you can see the yeast settling out between layers 2 and 1

Sorry to disagree but, I recently brewed one batch and split it into 4 jugs using different yeast. Two of the jugs have a layer like layer 3 and two did not. I would think that all four would have had that layer IF it was just trub.

BTW, all four had a layer like #2.

Beer_Guy said:

Sorry to disagree but, I recently brewed one batch and split it into 4 jugs using different yeast. Two of the jugs have a layer like layer 3 and two did not. I would think that all four would have had that layer IF it was just trub.

BTW, all four had a layer like #2.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. If the two with layer three were the last two poured they would have more trub than the first two poured.


Yeast washing is definitely an art -- you need to learn when the timing is right to decant off the trub to keep maximum yeast. In that picture you can see a thin white layer at the top of level two just below the liquid in level one. That's yeast. He actually should have decanted that liquid a few minutes prior to taking that picture for maximum yeast. However, it's better to get no trub and lose a little yeast than keep some trub with the yeast.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Not necessarily. If the two with layer three were the last two poured they would have more trub than the first two poured. …

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My batch was an all LME brew. No added hops or grains used, so no trub at all until yeast went to work.

After fermenting, two of my jugs had very little trub and a thin white layer of yeast. The other two had a thicker layer of “Clumps” and no other evidence of trub. I just shook the jars with “Clumps” hard to breakup the clumps before my first wash.

I have since brewed another batch with the yeast saved from one of those clumpy jugs. I had active fermentation within a few hours.

To DufMan77;
The clumps are yeast and trub clumped together. Shake it hard to breakup the clumps and then wash it. Let it settle , then repeat if needed.

kanzimonson said:

…
The difficulty was all in the fact that the yeast puck on the bottom of the primary is so freakin thick! You can try to stir it around and break it up, but it doesn't seem to come apart very easily!
…
So I don't really know what to tell you except stir, stir, stir to get those yeast broken up and in suspension.

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Disclaimer: It worked for me.

Another thought; I have never seen white trub and layer 3 looks to be clumps of a white something or other mixed with normal color trub.

Hmmm? What is white in a fermented brew? Oh yea, YEAST!!!

[Sorry if I seem to harsh but it has been discussed before. And it has been a long day.]

Why not just make your own yeast starter? First take a large sample from your trub and inoculate into some Yeast media. Then grow this sample it at room temperature for 3-5 days while shaking. This would give you a large pitching population and you would not have to worry about dead yeast cells and all that other crud.

Do you think it is better to pitch the yeast while the majority of the yeast population is in log phase or in stationary phase? I would predict that pitching the yeast while they are in log phase would decrease the lag time.

I actually took a sample of the bottom layer and made a small starter and it was fermenting away within 24 hours. So I used larger amounts of water to wash the bottom layer more and after several washes it looks just like the picture that Yooperbrew posted.

peoplesbrewingcoop said:

Why not just make your own yeast starter? First take a large sample from your trub and inoculate into some Yeast media. Then grow this sample it at room temperature for 3-5 days while shaking. This would give you a large pitching population and you would not have to worry about dead yeast cells and all that other crud.

Do you think it is better to pitch the yeast while the majority of the yeast population is in log phase or in stationary phase? I would predict that pitching the yeast while they are in log phase would decrease the lag time.

Click to expand...

I agree with doing starters for all washed yeast for 2 reasons. First, the yeast is already wide awake and ready to fight the enemies of beer. Second, if the yeast looses there first battle against those enemies in a starter, I loose less wort.

DuffMan77 said:

I actually took a sample of the bottom layer and made a small starter and it was fermenting away within 24 hours. So I used larger amounts of water to wash the bottom layer more and after several washes it looks just like the picture that Yooperbrew posted.

Click to expand...

What’d I say. HUH? What’d I say?

I was kinda wondering the same thing, but I think I see the layer better in my pic.



I'm using boiled and cooled distilled water so there's no oxygen or nutrients in the water.

It should settle a bit more, but my goal should be to remove the thin white layer of yeast and leave the other stuff behind?

I'm trying to harvest for a barleywine.

I know I can lightly swirl the jar to get that white layer in suspension to decant it, but after should I add more water to the trub and mix it up to try to get some more white yeast out?