Yeast Washing/Saving

Hi,

So I've followed the yeast washing process described here at HBT in the past and have had good success with it.

This post is regarding my latest half-assed attempt. I failed to prepare my jars beforehand so instead of going through the whole boil/chill/wash/fill process I simply sanitized a half-gallon jug, added some tap water to the carboy after racking, and poured whatever would fit into the jug. It has now been sitting on my kitchen table since Saturday night with the cap screwed on (not tightly since I think the little buggers were still working...didn't want an explosion on my hands). I was planning on preparing some smaller mason jars tonight or tomorrow to complete the task.

Should I even bother trying to save it at this point or do you think the chance that other bugs got in there is too great?

If it makes any difference the yeast was the Wyeast Belgian Abbey II 1762. I made a 1/2 gallon starter from a single pack and pitched it into a Belgian blond (1.067). Fermenation started quickly, continued vigorously, and attentuation was great so I'm guessing these guys are probably pretty healthy.

well ideally, you want boiled water due to it being sterile and devoid of oxygen to sleep the yeast. tap water contains chlorine and potential life forms i personally would not want in with my yeast. has anything settled yet? i would shake it up, put in fridge for a half hour and decant off the settled crap. then do again. i've only washed yeast a few times, but need to do it more often to avoid buyilding up slants each time. starsan might be something to consider using for the second round of washing.

Thanks! I used Star-San on the bottle that is currently (still) holding what I saved. It has completely settled so a good shaking might be in order to decant. Everything appears to be OK so I might proceed with washing it and do a test batch to see if anything funky got in it. Thanks for the help!

In the future when you go to use them, make sure you sniff them before pitching. If they are indeed infected you should be able to smell it. Also prepare a starter and have some notty in hand if something goes awry.

petep1980 said:

In the future when you go to use them, make sure you sniff them before pitching. If they are indeed infected you should be able to smell it. Also prepare a starter and have some notty in hand if something goes awry.

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+1 to this--had some washed yeast about 2.5 months old, put it in a starter, thought I saw some bubbles in my starter (on a stir plate I don't always get a krausen) but no fermentation 24 hours later. Had to go out grab some more yeast--it was a big pain. Better to have dry yeast around to pitch if needed.

I would probably dump this and next time follow the yeast washing illustrated thread, but you could see what happens.

I need to either slant or give up on harvesting yeast, or plan to brew many of the same style quickly after each other (what am I going to do with 4 jars of kolsch yeast?) Otherwise the yeast seems to lose viability too fast.

Thanks again! I might just try to save a little of it and when I go to use it and it's a bit funky I'll chuck it.

had some washed yeast about 2.5 months old, put it in a starter, thought I saw some bubbles in my starter (on a stir plate I don't always get a krausen) but no fermentation 24 hours later. Had to go out grab some more yeast--it was a big pain. Better to have dry yeast around to pitch if needed.

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I had some washed WLP002 in my fridge for about 4 months and with a 1/2 gallon starter got a nice stout out of it. Maybe I got lucky but I do have some Notty on hand in case of an emergency.

This is how I harvest yeast and it works well. I use 1 liter pop bottles as my storage container. Once I remove the beer from my yeast cake, I stir the 1 inch of beer left on top of the cake to make a slurry. The pop bottles have been sitting in idopohor along with a funnel, glass measuring cup and the lids. I shake out the excess idopohor and pour an ounce or so of cooled kettle water inside the bottle to rinse. I then line up the bottles (4 or 6) and pour the slurry into them until they are 3/4 full. I put the lid on loosely and squeeze out the air until the liquid comes to the top and then tighten the lid. Refrigerate until brew day. Remove from the fridge 4 hours prior and the bottle will be fully expanded and ready to pitch. I use 2 bottles and have a vigourous fermentation. One original lack of yeast will give 6 batches easily.

I racked a Barley wine that was aged 4 weeks in carboy. I left a little bit of the BW on the cake. It will be a week before I can get in, boil the water and wash it up. This yeast cake should be a powerfull blend. It was a yeast cake from a Celebration Ale clone using California Ale yeast i think with a BW yeast starter thrown in for good measure.

Is it still worth the effort, or should I just pitch it and try it next time?
How many times would you guys pitch on a yeast cake in sequence?

I use yeast cake at least 5 or 6 times. First batch makes 4 bottles. Second batch makes 4 bottles (6 left now) Use the first batch bottles (2) for the third. Two to three batches left or more if you want.