Washing Yeast

OK, I've read the first 15 pages on the washing yeast sticky. I haven't really fround my answer yet. Hopefully I can explain what I think is correct along with one more question.

From what I understand, after mixing sterile (boiled and cooled) water to the bottom of the primary, mix it up and pour it into some type of jar. Let it set in the fridge and let it seperate. The stuff on top (clearer stuff) is waste and is not needed. The stuff on the bottom is what we want. Correct?

My question: My mix has a lot of trub. How do I get rid of the trub? Right now, after about 20 minutes I have 1/4" on the top layer (clearest), 1" in the middle (yeast?) and 1 1/2" on the bottom of the jar (trub).

Will I have 3 layers by tomorrow or will the yeast and trub mix together? If I have 3 layers, it's the middle layer that I want?

I haven't seen any pictures that look like my attepted yeast wash.

Thanks for any help.

1. Pour water onto yeast cake and swirl it up. Wait 20 minutes and some of the trub will have fallen to the bottom. Yeast will still be suspended in the water. Pour some that yeast/water mixture into a large jar, being careful to leave the trub that has fallen to the bottom undisturbed.

2. Repeat process in the jar. Wait 20 minutes, more trub will fall out, yeast will still be suspended in water, pour out some of the yeast/water into your smaller jars.

3. Seal jars and refrigerate. The "washed" yeast will fall to the bottom. When it's time to brew again, pitch the contents of the jar into the starter - you can drain off the water first, but it's not necessary.

These are not full instructions . Bernie Brewers are far more detailed and complete. Hope this helps.

dae06 said:

From what I understand, after mixing sterile (boiled and cooled) water to the bottom of the primary, mix it up and pour it into some type of jar. Let it set in the fridge and let it seperate. The stuff on top (clearer stuff) is waste and is not needed. The stuff on the bottom is what we want. Correct?



Thanks for any help.

Click to expand...

Nope. That's backwards. The idea is that yeast is the last thing to settle out, so you are transferring from one jar to another AFTER the trub has settled, but BEFORE the yeast has settled. so the clearer stuff on top is what you want to keep. Make sense?

Bernie Brewer said:

Nope. That's backwards. The idea is that yeast is the last thing to settle out, so you are transferring from one jar to another AFTER the trub has settled, but BEFORE the yeast has settled. so the clearer stuff on top is what you want to keep. Make sense?

Click to expand...

Thanks, that helps. When I let my big jar sit for ~20, I began to see 3 layers. So I poored off the top 2 (leaving the trub behind) and put this into 2 seperate mason jars in the fridge. I maybe could have poored them before the top 2 layers started to seperate, but this morning the 2 jars look just as they should.

For some reason the sticky on washing yeast got me a little confused and was a bit long to read through. You two cleared it up nicely for me.

Thanks