Washed yeast + starter question

I have started washing (rinsing) yeast and have recently used my washed yeast for the first time to make new batches of beer. I have been making starters for these batches about 12-18 hours in advance and have been seeing good signs of life before I pitch.

The one thing I have noticed about my washed starters is that there is still some white trub settling at the bottom of my vessel. I haven't upgraded to a stir plate yet so I use a 1.8 liter milk jug and shake it every time I walk past it which has worked well for me but again I am noticing this trub settling out.

I didn't pay much attention to starters made when I was using fresh vials of yeast so I don't know if this is different or not.

So what I'm saying is, I make a starter, I shake it every hour on the hour for many hours and half way through the process I start to notice a whitish trub settling 5-10 minutes after the previous shaking just as in the washing process. It's not worrying me as I am assuming it's dead yeast, hop particles, etc from the previous batches that made it through the washing process.

What I am wondering if this is something I should just shake up and pour into my new batch or something I should let settle out for the 5-10 minutes after shaking and then pour the starter in trying to leave as much of it behind?

Anyone else experience this or know what I am talking about?

Thanks

StarCityBrewMaster said:

What I am wondering if this is something I should just shake up and pour into my new batch or something I should let settle out for the 5-10 minutes after shaking and then pour the starter in trying to leave as much of it behind?

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I have used washed yeast on the last three (four?) batches I've brewed. I only used a starter on one I harvested from a bottle conditioned beer. The washes I just decant off most of the water, then shake until I get all the yeast into solution and toss it in my wort. I've had vigorous fermentations with all of them.

Not sure if I would use a milk container for my yeast starter (is it plastic or glass?)...

In my experience, with starters and with washed yeast, I simply swirl them (for 15-30 seconds) as I pass them from time to time. I also usually make my starters 1-2 days before my intended brew-day. This ensures that the starter is finished in time.

I've been using a 1/2 gallon jar for my starters, but recently picked up a 2L jar that has a better lid (to seal it up for the trip to my brewing location)... Plan to use that for the first time within the next 2 weeks.

For the washed yeast, how well did you separate the trub from what you collected? I think that as long as you have a good size slurry to start from, you'll have a good amount of viable yeast going into the brew. Of course, using Mr. Malty to help figure it out isn't a bad idea...

Personally, I've been using starters with washed yeast to ensure I have enough viable yeast. If the starter doesn't do well in time for the brewing, then I have enough time to get fresh yeast. Luckily, I've not had that issue so far...

If you wanted to, or had any concern about the yeast, you could make the starter 2-3 days before your target brew day. Once the starter is done, put it in the fridge for the balance of time (unless we're only talking about a few hours)... Pull it out of the fridge as you're starting the brew (such as getting the pots setup) so that it has enough time to warm up. By the time you're ready to pitch it, it should be close enough to the temperature of the chilled wort to be safe. Of course, a quick temperature reading will ensure this is true. 10-15F difference will be fine, since most yeast only caution you to make the difference less than 10C (about 18-20F)...

If it's white, are you certain that it's not yeast that' floculated out? If it has clumped together and dropped out, then it'll look just like what you've described. If you shake it really, really hard, does it break up into solution? Could it be left over clumps from your yeast cake? I've noticed that with some yeasts (high floc strains) I have to shake the daylights out of it to break it up.