First time washing yeast

I think I've done it correctly. My yeast is currently in 4 pint jars like the ones below. I followed the stock thread in this topic. Was going to do a 1.056 SG batch in a few days. Is this too much yeast (at the 4oz mark now been in fridge for 5 hours) to pitch for that batch? Mr malty says about 90 ml is needed. It's s-04.

Also. That is yeast I got correct? It doesn't look like the trub or anything.

Looks like yeast to me. Just pitch one of the jars and you will be fine.

Calder said:

Looks like yeast to me. Just pitch one of the jars and you will be fine.

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Thanks! Glad to know I got the yeast. 4 oz is about 118ml so that sounds good. Wasn't sure how many of them are dead though.

thats probably about perfect, i used 2 oz for a 1.7 gallon batch,it took a while to start with a mid sixties temp which the vial says to keep at 70 until it starts for this liquid yeast. Which im learning my lesson from keeping it too low!It fermented well but i had a large amount of yeast/trube which made me wonder if i overpitched. I went buy what i read for a good amount of slurry which is 4-6 oz i think for a 5 gallon batch.
Your yeast looks really good.
Just wondering how you plan on pitching that. Pour off the liquid then just add? I Poured added wort then stirred with a spoon to my aerated wort,still took a long time to take off with low mid 60 temp so i used a heating pad on low to get it back to 70 as the vial suggest to keep it until it starts.

Yeah. Planning on decanting and then mixing up a little slurry and pitching it. Will probably keep at 66-68. Ive had great success with those temps so far.

Wanted to report that I repitched as stated above and my airlock damn near overflowed on a 5gal batch in a 6gal better bottle. Stayed at 66 the whole time. So yeah I definitely got the yeasties. Only now there's so much crap on the inside too of the Carboy I can't see anything.

Sounds like a good beer to me.

The first time I used washed yeast I think I put too many in from a quart size jar. Within one hour the airlock was bubbling like crazy-maybe I should stick to the same size jars that you did!

How does one wash yeast and what does one add to the washed yeast to keep alive/grow them?

Bones1948 said:

How does one wash yeast and what does one add to the washed yeast to keep alive/grow them?

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Check out the extensive Sticky at the top of this forum:

Yeast Washing Illustrated

kmk1012 said:

The first time I used washed yeast I think I put too many in from a quart size jar. Within one hour the airlock was bubbling like crazy-maybe I should stick to the same size jars that you did!

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Yeah the pint sized jars yielded about 120-150ml. The rest I'm goin to make starters with. I can smell what went into the airlock and this is going to be a good brew.

pabloj13 said:

Check out the extensive Sticky at the top of this forum:

Yeast Washing Illustrated

Click to expand...

That's where I learned it. I've slightly modified that since I have a better bottle. I put about 3-4 liters of cooled boiled water in my BB and swish around and let settle for 20 minutes. Then I use the racking adapter to siphon from the middle yeast layer only. That's what went into my sterilized pint jars and maybe a thiiiiiiiiin layer of trub at the bottom of it


I experimented with pouring from that layer into my 2L flask but decanting off from there without disturbing the trub seemed more painstaking than necessary.

Anybody got any tricks to pick up the layer of yeast to put in starter?

Grinreaper said:

Anybody got any tricks to pick up the layer of yeast to put in starter?

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Decant off most of the liquid leaving only a little. Swirl. Dump into starter.

Well i got a needleless 60ml seringe. Sanitized it. Decanted most of the water then using the seringe tried to remove most of the darkess layer. Swirled the slurry then dumped into starter. Here's hoping that it starts to react.

I just pitched some pacman into my 60 minute clone over the weekend. The pacman was washed on 10/31 and I made a stepped starter finishing at 2L. Was bubbling away in a few hours. I still have one jar of pacman in my fridge. Washed yeast seems to keep for a decent amount of time.

I wash mine exactly as illustrated in the sticky and end up with zero trub in my mason jars, that I can see anyway. Don't make the washing more complicated than it has to be.

When I say racking adapter. Remember I'm talking about the porter better bottles. It's basically a spigot on the primary that lets me select where from inside the Carboy to pull. So rather than decant from the top I just pull from the middle yeast layer.

Well i did a starter with my washed wlp005 on saturday. Wednesday,nothing. Instead ,my starter has three layers at the bottom. Brown,white and beige.

Got any clues what went wrong. I did a 2 cups water:1/2 cup DME.

Grinreaper said:

Well i did a starter with my washed wlp005 on saturday. Wednesday,nothing. Instead ,my starter has three layers at the bottom. Brown,white and beige.

Got any clues what went wrong. I did a 2 cups water:1/2 cup DME.

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Probably nothing went wrong. It sounds like you did not see the starter ferment. They are not as active as in a beer.

The brown is trub, the white or beige is the yeast, the beige might be a mix of yeast and debris.

If you have a larger layer than when it started you have successfully made a starter.

Grinreaper said:

Anybody got any tricks to pick up the layer of yeast to put in starter?

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I use a 1 gallon pickle jar with a wide mouth and sanitize and boil 3 quarts of water and pour that on the cake after racking, swirl bucket and pour back in the jar put the lid on and let it sit on my counter for a couple of days. After that time the yeast pour off the other junk really easy.

kh54s10 said:

Probably nothing went wrong. It sounds like you did not see the starter ferment. They are not as active as in a beer.

The brown is trub, the white or beige is the yeast, the beige might be a mix of yeast and debris.

If you have a larger layer than when it started you have successfully made a starter.

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So i should check with a hydrometer to see if in fac it did ferment. But usually i would have seen some krauzen stick on the side of the fermenter if indeed the yeast did something right?