Best way to consolidate rinsed yeast?

Had my first try at rinsing/washing yeast, and think I did a pretty good job. The attached photo is after about 5 days in the fridge after coming off a pale ale.

There was very little trub in the primary, as I use a paint strainer to filter all the pellet trub when heading into primary, so all that was there was yeast.

Obviously the yeast isn't evenly distributed, and I read you can consolidate after it settles in the fridge. What's the best way to do this? Decant the liquid, then take a sanitized spoon, transfer it all to a smaller jar, top off with some of that extra decanted liquid until there's no headspace? I feel like I could fill an 8oz jar, at least, with almost 100 compacted yeast cake, yeah?

I like to keep "starter sized" containers... about 1" of yeast in a 8 oz mason jar.
Once the yeast has compacted down like in your picture, it doesn't pour very well.
You can pour off some of the liquid, and use the remaining to swirl and suspend the yeast. I would pour the far right into the second from the left, and store the full one, and the the one you just combined.
Then take that short one and step it up.
In the future, what you should do is gather into one large jar, settle it, and then decant leaving about 1 part yeast to 3 parts wash. Swirl that up and pour evenly into separate small jars. When those settle, it will be about 1" yeast to 3" wash (all equal).

Oops, double post...

Your washed yeast looks good. Combine the two low jars. Once my own washed yeast has settled out like in your photo, I decant extra fluid and transfer yeast into 4 ounce mini jelly jars (Walmart sells "Ball" and "Kerr" brand 4 ounce shorty jelly jars) which use little space in the back of the fridge. Make sure everything is sanitary and label with strain and date.

Blueflint said:

Your washed yeast looks good. Combine the two low jars. Once my own washed yeast has settled out like in your photo, I decant extra fluid and transfer yeast into 4 ounce mini jelly jars (Walmart sells "Ball" and "Kerr" brand 4 ounce shorty jelly jars) which use little space in the back of the fridge. Make sure everything is sanitary and label with strain and date.

Click to expand...

how do you transfer? Sanitized spoon, or leave a little liquid, swish around and pour? I'm assuming a spoon is OK, but don't want to fudge anything up if it's going to cause issues.

You can use a sanitized spoon. However I would recommend sanitizing with boiling water rather than sanitizer. Metal spoons have lots of scratches and are used for everything; I don't know if sanitizer can necessarily clean scratches.

Stick a mug of water in the microwave. When boiling, remove and place spoon in it.

Be sure everything is sanitized. Pour off the excess fluid in you yeast jars (95%) then swirl the jar to loosen the yeast cake then pour into the sanitary jar. Be sure to close your jar quickly to eliminate contamination possibilities. Label jar with yeast type and date then put in the back of the fridge. Once you are ready to use, let jar come to room temp then make your starter.

Here is a pic. The little jar is from some Wyeast 1010 I washed last week and the larger jars are ready to pour off and put into little jars. This is a batch of washed White Labs 037 Yorkshire Square from an Oatmeal Stout.