Is it possible- no "stuff" in the trub?

I just siphoned my Pete's Wicked Ale clone to secondary ( and my Sawtooth clone). I always strain my wort going into primary, but I still get a little yucky stuff in the trub. My Sawtooth had typical, greenish trub (hop pellets) and other stuff. I used Safale S-04. My Pete's clone had a hard compact sediment that looked only like yeast. I used Wyeast American Ale yeast (1056, I believe) with a starter. After siphoning I poured off the beer that was just over the yeast and the stuff that was left was thicker than drywall putty and light colored. I added a little water and stirred it up- then it was the consistancy of very thick mud. I was going to do a yeast washing and save this yeast- is all that putty in there the yeast? I'd have to add a couple of quarts of water to wash this stuff. I poured it the the little water into a mason jar, and nothing is separating out. Should I add more water and attempt to wash, or save in the mason jar as is?

Lorena

Sure it's possible... um... I guess. Two weeks ago I racked a California Common that I had in primary for almost 3 weeks. Same think happened. The trub looked like that of a secondary. Nothing in there but yeast, or at least that's what it seemed. It was also very compact, it took a bit of beer & swirling to get it out nicely. I saved it in a mason jar, and is sitting in my fridge just asking to be used again in another batch... I think I'm going to have to oblige!

Funny you should mention that...my Safale-56 was clean and putty-like also. ...yes, that's yeast...

Safale-56 makes for a nice stable trub, which is it great if you keg from the fermenter like I do. Or if you plan on transporting the brew at some point.

Some of that gunk is proteins from break material. I've read and heard that after you let that settle in the fridge for a few days, you can decant the water off the top, as well as the top layer. The middle yeasts are the ones that are the ones you want to keep for sure. The dead ones won't hurt it but they won't help it either.