Yet another yeast harvesting thread (with pics)... halfway there

Experienced yeast washers please inform me. I have the following. In the first picture here I have my first container on the left. I took the trub from one beer (red ale) after racking it and mixed it up with about a liter+ of water. I swirled it and poured in the big doggy treat container (it was sterile). I let that sit overnight in my fridge then I poured the top liquid half into those two mason jars on the left, the golden looking ones. I did the exact same thing with my rochefort clone and the mason jars on the right. Now I don't know what to do. Is this it? Am I done? Do I just make a big starter with two of the jars when I'm ready to brew my next batch? Or, have I screwed up?

here is what I do:


I take a canning stock pot and line it with my mason jars and a big jar, kind of like your doggy treat jar, but not as tall. Put all the lids in there too, and fill 'er up. Boil it for around 20 minutes. Then take out the jars with some tongs, (don't spill any of the water that is in the jars), cover them, and put'em in the fridge for a few hours.

Rack your beer. Take your jars, the big one too, and dump the water into the carboy. Swirl it around and then let everything settle for around 15 minutes to an hour. You don't need to let them sit overnight. then fill your mason jars back up with the water in the carboy, being careful to leave the stuff on the bottom that has settled out. Fill the jars all the way up. Cover them, label and date them, and put'em in the fridge.

Bernie Brewer said:

here is what I do:


I take a canning stock pot and line it with my mason jars and a big jar, kind of like your doggy treat jar, but not as tall. Put all the lids in there too, and fill 'er up. Boil it for around 20 minutes. Then take out the jars with some tongs, (don't spill any of the water that is in the jars), cover them, and put'em in the fridge for a few hours.

Rack your beer. Take your jars, the big one too, and dump the water into the carboy. Swirl it around and then let everything settle for around 15 minutes to an hour. You don't need to let them sit overnight. then fill your mason jars back up with the water in the carboy, being careful to leave the stuff on the bottom that has settled out. Fill the jars all the way up. Cover them, label and date them, and put'em in the fridge.

Click to expand...

Does each jar provide enough yeast to make a starter?! If so, that means I can get two starters for each yeast I just harvested? 1 for each jar?

If you look at the second photograph, you will see that there are two distinct layers of sediment on the bottom of both jars. The top (lighter) layer is yeast. The bottom (darker) layer is trub.

If you are going to brew within the next week or so, I would leave it as it is.

If you want to keep it for a while, I would leave it in the fridge for a few more days to help precipitate the yeast, discard most of the liquid, and then decant the remaining liquid and light colored yeast into a new sanitized jar with some more boiled and cooled water to remove almost all of the trub.

-a.

ajf said:

If you look at the second photograph, you will see that there are two distinct layers of sediment on the bottom of both jars. The top (lighter) layer is yeast. The bottom (darker) layer is trub.

If you are going to brew within the next week or so, I would leave it as it is.

If you want to keep it for a while, I would leave it in the fridge for a few more days to help precipitate the yeast, discard most of the liquid, and then decant the remaining liquid and light colored yeast into a new sanitized jar with some more boiled and cooled water to remove almost all of the trub.

-a.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Could be up to 2 months before I use either again. Thanks ajf and berniebrewer

seefresh said:

Does each jar provide enough yeast to make a starter?! If so, that means I can get two starters for each yeast I just harvested? 1 for each jar?

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You did good, bro..... You got 4 starters......
Keep your yeast in the fridge for up to 3 mo before re-feeding or until used up.

OldFarmer said:

You did good, bro..... You got 4 starters......
Keep your yeast in the fridge for up to 3 mo before re-feeding or until used up.

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Funny story, I was at my LHBS and talking to the owner and his brew partner. He was talking to his brew partner about how I'm buying up all his grain. he says almost everyone in town is extract. His partner mentioned that if I started buying up all his yeast too he could expand his business or something along those lines. ANyway, I was quick to inform them I had started harvesting my yeast and they were impressed. They thought it was some crazy difficult task. But, it's really pretty darn simple.

seefresh said:

Funny story, I was at my LHBS and talking to the owner and his brew partner. He was talking to his brew partner about how I'm buying up all his grain. he says almost everyone in town is extract. His partner mentioned that if I started buying up all his yeast too he could expand his business or something along those lines. ANyway, I was quick to inform them I had started harvesting my yeast and they were impressed. They thought it was some crazy difficult task. But, it's really pretty darn simple.

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You'll probably not buy much yeast in the future, only when you need a new strain.
Good Luck........

When I have done it I don't let the mixture sit overnight but rather wait about 15 - 20 minutes and pour off the top liquid. The heavier trub settles the quickest and the yeast is in suspension.

Blender said:

When I have done it I don't let the mixture sit overnight but rather wait about 15 - 20 minutes and pour off the top liquid. The heavier trub settles the quickest and the yeast is in suspension.

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That's the first thing I heard, then I read another article about letting it sit overnight. I was so confused at a certain point that I had to post this thread. So many people contradict each other, or I guess just have different ways of doing it.

seefresh said:

Does each jar provide enough yeast to make a starter?! If so, that means I can get two starters for each yeast I just harvested? 1 for each jar?

Click to expand...

Yeah, each jar is enough to make a starter. If the jar is older, it may take a little longer, but should be ok. Today I pitched yeast on a Belgian. I made the starter from yeast that I washed last December. I have no qualms about using yeast that has been in my fridge for over a year.

Okay
I read through this thread and just want to clearify that I am understanding correctly. Wash out from the leavings and the trub. Let settle for 15-60 minutes and pour off liquid into a sterile pint jar as pictured and store in fridge.

I have a controled chest freezer that is set at 32F is it okay to store yeast at this temp? Thanks for the help. - Robar

Bernie Brewer said:

Yeah, each jar is enough to make a starter. If the jar is older, it may take a little longer, but should be ok. Today I pitched yeast on a Belgian. I made the starter from yeast that I washed last December. I have no qualms about using yeast that has been in my fridge for over a year.

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I agree, sometimes it's good, but sometimes you lose. I had a slant of Y2272 that was just a bit over 6 mo and it wouldn't come up. Wyeast does't have it anymore (so they say, they probably have a thousand sticks in their cryo tank). Anyway, a fellow HBT member in Canada has some i might be able to get a culture from. Sometimes you win, mostly you lose......
cheers.....

Robar said:

Okay
I read through this thread and just want to clearify that I am understanding correctly. Wash out from the leavings and the trub. Let settle for 15-60 minutes and pour off liquid into a sterile pint jar as pictured and store in fridge.

I have a controled chest freezer that is set at 32F is it okay to store yeast at this temp? Thanks for the help. - Robar

Click to expand...

I think 32 is too cold, but I could be wrong.

seefresh said:

That's the first thing I heard, then I read another article about letting it sit overnight. I was so confused at a certain point that I had to post this thread. So many people contradict each other, or I guess just have different ways of doing it.

Click to expand...

Waiting 15 - 20 minutes for the trub to settle and then decanting the yeast that is suspended in the liquid is certainly one way to do it. In that case, you would keep all the liquid and leaf all the precipitated solids behind.

I suggested leaving it in the fridge for a few days for the yeast to settle out of the liquid. In that case, you could throw away most of the liquid before decanting, and just decant a small amount of liquid with the top layer of precipitated solids. You can see when you have transferred the yeast and begin to pick up the trub.

Neither way is right or wrong, but you don't want to get confused.

You won't get good results if you leave it 15 minutes, and discard almost all the liquid, or if you precipitate all the yeast, and just decant the now clear liquid.

-a.

ajf said:

Waiting 15 - 20 minutes for the trub to settle and then decanting the yeast that is suspended in the liquid is certainly one way to do it. In that case, you would keep all the liquid and leaf all the precipitated solids behind.

I suggested leaving it in the fridge for a few days for the yeast to settle out of the liquid. In that case, you could throw away most of the liquid before decanting, and just decant a small amount of liquid with the top layer of precipitated solids. You can see when you have transferred the yeast and begin to pick up the trub.

Neither way is right or wrong, but you don't want to get confused.

You won't get good results if you leave it 15 minutes, and discard almost all the liquid, or if you precipitate all the yeast, and just decant the now clear liquid.

-a.

Click to expand...

Right, I'm doing the few day method because I want to leave behind as much of the previous beer as possible. So it doesn't impart too much flavor into my next batch.

Sorry to break in again, but as I type this I have 14 pint jars of water in the canning kettle to seal. The water was close to 200 when I put it into the clean jars. Now when I bring the kettle up to boiling I will let it go for half an hour which should bring the water in the jars right up with it. Correct?

To clearify I am using a hot water bath not a presure canner. I couldn't find where my wife has the lid and seal hidden so went with the bath as my only immediate option.

The water in the jars is treated with a product called five-two or 5.2 It is a PH adjuster. My water ph is super alkaline so I thought it best to treat he water that the yeast will be stored in.

Also what is the lowest possible temp I can store the washed yeast at? I could adjust my chest freezer up from 32 a bit but wouldn't really want to get to 40. Thanks for the help and advice. - Robar

You want to keep the yeast from freezing, so 35 or so is the lowest I would dare go. Add some glycerin and you can go below freezing, though.

The washing method I learned was to wait 15 minutes, decant the liquid, repeat, and then crash cool to get the yeast out of suspension. Then decant the liquid off, and you have a high-purity yeast slurry .

Thanks Ed.

I never understood why more people dont use agar slants, it takes so much less space in the fridge! All you do is boil geletin with some water and DME. Get some pyrex test tubes from a hobby shop. tilt tubes with gelatin at 45 degee angle, let dry, presto, agar slants, using flame sterilzed paper clip wire, dip wire into whitelabs/wyseast and apply to tube, loosen cork/cap for one week then use electrical tape and keep 3-4 months in fridge. after that you can endlessly culture more tubes from an old one. I left alot of details out because there are good web sites on google on how to do it.

Personally, when reconstituting a strain I would rather have 32ml of solids than a streak on a slant. And I can store a 20x150 vial in just a little more space than a slant. As for whole jars of yeast, it's just quick & easy and the high density yeast affords protection from small infections.