how to wash yeast?

I'm going to be brewing a big dark belgian strong and would like to brew a witbier immediately after I move to secondary(its a trois pistole clone so I'm going to bulk age in secondary). Could I just put the new chilled wort on the yeast cake in primary immediately after racking? if you cant , how can you reuse the existing yeast?

Thanks

Andy,

Here is a great guide by Bernie Brewer on Washing Yeast with pictures. To your question of "Could I just put the new chilled wort on the yeast cake in primary immediately after racking?" I can't comment as I have not re-pitched in a long while and can't quiet remember how well that turned out I do know that in general terms what you find is the yeast left in your carboy is not a good as a fresh batch....IMHO

However I am sure you will get many suggestions and insight regarding your quandry;-)

Good luck!

Nick

I've heard from reading stuff on HBT that pitching on a yeast cake makes it so that the yeast won't produce the flavors that they ordinarily would. In other words, the yeast flavors/esters come from the reproduction phase. When you pitch on a yeast cake, there's enough yeast to do the job and they don't need to reproduce so, no yeast flavors.

I've pitched onto a yeast cake before but I did it with a big Imperial IPA where yeast flavors are subtle and overpowered by the hops anyway. Since the yeast flavors/esters are so important in Belgians, IMO, I'd wash the yeast, make a starter and use that in the witbier. The bernie brewer guide mentioned above is awesome.

Also, I think the Bernie Brewer guide has some comments on washing yeast after use in a high-grav beer. If your strong ale is a really high grav, the yeast might be too stressed out to wash.

- typical practice is to go from smaller to bigger beers and less to more hoppy beers (or to a comparable beer).

- I would not pitch straight onto the yeast cake because you'll overpitch (especially going from a bigger to smaller beer).

- I'd go here and read what Wyeast has to say about pitching rates: http://www.wyeastlab.com/com-pitch-rates.cfm

I wash my yeast cake like this:
- siphon my beer off into my storage container(s)
- I pour in (into my fermenter --carboy--) about 3-4 cups of boiled water (boiled to sanitize it) that's been chilled back down to ~70 degrees.
- I gently swirl the liquid around until most of the yeast is broken free of the bottom of the carboy
- pour the contents (remember to sanitize the opening of your fermenter) into a sanitized, clear container (I use a 2L flask (bit small) - you want a container that's at least 2x the liquid vloume)
- put a sanitized stopper in the flask and shake like crazy. You're trying to break up the clumps of yeast.
- place the container on the counter and wait about 10-15 minutes. The bad stuff, trub/break/dead yeast should quickly settle to the bottom and the viable yeast should still be in suspension.
- siphon the good stuff into another container using sanitary practices and prepare your starter for the next batch.

You should really listen to Brew Strong: Repitching Yeast: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/492 to learn a bit more about repitching. You should listen to Brew Strong Yeast Starters: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-12-22-08-Yeast-Starters to learn more about starters. You should listen to Brew Strong: Yeast Washing: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/543 to learn more about washing.

Jamil's Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator is a VERY useful tool and it can be found here: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html