Saving yeast

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skeeordye11

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So after my last transfer to secondary, I swirled my primary to get everything suspended and poured it all into a sanitized jar, set the lid on and put it in the fridge. As expected, it settled into 3 distinct layers, something like foam, liquid, and other at the bottom. From what I have read here the yeast is at the bottom, so my question is should I pour off the rest now, or does it not matter and can I do it before I want to pitch it? Thanks in advance for the info!
 
You need to re-read washing instructions because you have it wrong.

You need to add about a 1/2 gal of sanitized and cooled water to "wash" the yeast from the trub.

I do not want to take another 15 mins typing up the instructions. Maybe someone here knows where those posts are and will lead yo uin the right direction. Or you can do a search for the instructions. There are plenty of threads here on the subject. :D
 
I have read yeast washing instructions, but I didn't really have the time and means to do it appropriately, so I figured this would be like using a yeast cake. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought I could do it this way.
 
Run a search on yeast washing, you'll get loads of info. You can also check out the tutorial on the Wyeast website.

You still have yeast (the white layer) just not washed yeast since it is sitting on all that trub at the bottom.

At this point, you could try warming it up, swirling to get the yeast back in suspension, and proceeding with the full yeast washing regimen, or you could pitch the whole thing next time you brew if that is within a few weeks.
 
skeeordye11 said:
I have read yeast washing instructions, but I didn't really have the time and means to do it appropriately, so I figured this would be like using a yeast cake. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought I could do it this way.
No, you are right. At this point you basically have a jarred yeast cake, but it's not washed.:D
 
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