A New Door Has Been Opened...

...thanks in large part to Bernie Brewer and his yeast washing sticky. It's funny how you can do something wrong a few times, end up with crappy results, and just give up and dismiss the practice as rubbish. That's what I did with yeast washing. I thought I had the practice down, I read tutorials several times, but every time I did it, the result was a sub-par batch of beer. Part of this was not doing the process correctly; the other part was laziness---leaving yeast cakes sitting alone in primaries post-rack for a week or more, for example.

So earlier this year, I decided that I was going to commit myself to learning this craft and keeping up a solid yeast farm. My first step was to dump all my jars of slurry down the drain and start from scratch. This was a good thing, as I had no guarantees on the quality of those jars.

Next, I read Bernie's instructions a couple times, and went to work. I washed them correctly this time---instead of saving the slurry, I saved the actual cloudy liquid. Duh. I also got out the label maker and labeled each jar, so there'd be no confusion. That was that---I wasn't convinced until just a few minutes ago, though...

On friday, I made a starter from one of the jars of harvested Forbidden Fruit, and it was chugging along several hours later. Good sign, but not exactly a slam dunk yet. Saturday, I brewed a weizen and pitched the starter into it. Had a short lag, and was chugging away all day yesterday.

Then today...I went home for a jog at lunch and saw that the airlock had stopped bubbling and the krausen had fallen. So I took a sample and it was down to 1.013 from 1.051. Nice. But it wasn't until I tasted the sample that I was sure of my success. Damn, damn fine beer. No off-flavors, very clean and fruity. This is exciting...by getting this technique down, I have slashed my operating costs and will now almost certainly use liquid yeast more often.

So here's a big thanks to BB. I wish it hadn't taken me 70 batches to learn how to do this correctly. Hey, all you n00bs: do yourself a favor and learn how to properly harvest/wash your liquid yeast!

Aw, shucks...........



Glad to see it helped. But really, don't thank me, thank the Wyeast's website- that's where I learned how to do it. But for some reason it's not there anymore.........

Bernie Brewer said:

Aw, shucks...........



Glad to see it helped. But really, don't thank me, thank the Wyeast's website- that's where I learned how to do it. But for some reason it's not there anymore.........

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maybe I'm just a 'tard, but their instructions were nowhere near as helpful as yours. Maybe it's the pictures, I dunno, but I was using their instructions early on, and that's where I ran into problems.

Washing yeast provides a tremendous cost savings for only a little time and effort. I use Nottingham from time to time, but 3/4 of all my beers use liquid because I wash yeast regularly.

I've used certain strains as much as 9 months later and still had it be viable and produce a good beer.

That's who I learned from.

Except I went with the apple juice jugs.

This Kolsch yeast on the right was 4 months old when I mixed it with a starter wort. 12 hours and "boom" goes the starter.

BierMuncher said:

That's who I learned from.

Except I went with the apple juice jugs.

This Kolsch yeast on the right was 4 months old when I mixed it with a starter wort. 12 hours and "boom" goes the starter.

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Hehe, nice! I use apple jugs for the starters, but I used various saved jars for storage. I don't do the whole boiling thing, either. Well, I boil the water that I add to wash the yeast, but I don't boil the jars. I just made sure they're clean and soaked 'em in starsan for awhile.

by the way---nice mug there. I've got a couple of those. Ikea?

I tried after reading Bernie's thread several times. I washed a Red Ale yeast set in the fridge for about 3 weeks and decided to give it a try just to see if I did it right. I took a small I mean small amout of yeast and added it to 2 cups of 1.040sh aerated wort. Within a few hours it was swirling and mixing around on its own . I the morning it was overflowing the 1/2 gallon bottle. SWMBO was not amused .

thanks again Bernie.

Evan! said:

but I don't boil the jars. I just made sure they're clean and soaked 'em in starsan for awhile.

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You should make sure they get some very hot water at least. Star-san won't kill any residual yeast that could be hanging around.

mr x said:

You should make sure they get some very hot water at least. Star-san won't kill any residual yeast that could be hanging around.

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Huh? I thought the whole idea behind Star san and iodopher was to kill off any bacteria and wild yeasts that may be hanging around. After a wash wouldnt the stray yeast be most likely gone?

Starsan doesn't kill yeast, that would sort of defeat the purpose, you know, of using it for brewing.

Star-san (mixed at recommended strength) won't kill wild or cultured yeast, you need heat or other chemicals to do that. You might be surprised at what will hang around jars and lids. Star-san is meant for bacteria.

Doh your right my bad .

I have never used Starsan I use BTF

Evan! said:

So earlier this year, I decided that I was going to commit myself to learning this craft and keeping up a solid yeast farm.

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Same here.

I have made slant cultures from each of the last three liquid yeast packs I've used (10 slants per culture). That part is going pretty well, finding my way in the process pretty good.

Over the weekend I made my first batch of beer from a starter I had grown from one of the cultured tubes. We will see how this goes. The stirplate really seems to help decrease the times needed between step-ups.

Canning some starter so it is always ready (and room-temp) is exceedingly helpful and makes me much more willing to make starters on a whim.

mr x said:

Star-san (mixed at recommended strength) won't kill wild or cultured yeast, you need heat or other chemicals to do that. You might be surprised at what will hang around jars and lids. Star-san is meant for bacteria.

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Found this description of starsan

Star San is a flavorless, odorless, no-rinse food grade sanitizer. When used according to directions, Star San will completely eliminate all microorganisms that it comes into contact with by lowering the pH to a level that will destroy them quickly (5 minutes), and foams to sanitize cracks, crevices and other 'impossible' places in your equipment. Once fresh wort/must is added to your fermenter the pH will quickly rise to a level that is not only safe for yeast, but sometimes beneficial, making Star-san a true no-rinse sanitizer.

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I found this to be true one time when trying to "Acid-wash" my yeast... not the smartest move I've made.

The pH of star-san isn't low enough to kill yeast on short term contact from what I have read and done. I've used it for washes of saved yeast before making starters with no problem.