Why Wash Yeast?

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Fletch78

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I am just about to bottle some beer and follow the sticky on washing the yeast cake, but then it occured to me, if I'm going to reuse it within 2 weeks anyway, can't I just keep a sterilized jar of the yeast cake in the refrigerator? I understand that washing will create several 'batches' to reuse later, without additional regenerations/mutations, but other than that, any other purpose?

Thanks!
 
To get that fresh linen aroma?

Other than that, you pretty much summed it up except that you also remove break and hop material from the yeast cake in the washing/settling process.
 
The sediment at the bottom of your fermenter is a mix of yeast and trub. With yeast washing there you are removing the trub from the yeast so that you aren't carrying over excess trub into your next batch.
 
Did the trub ruin your last beer? If so I'd say remove it. If not then why bother. Do what makes you feel comfortable but I know many brewers who brew award winning beer in reused yeast that wasn't rinsed. I would probably rinse if I had more time but I find it hard to make time for brewing as it is so it isn't worth it to me.
 
Do you not strain your wort into the fermenter? If you dry hopped, did you use a hop bag? If your answer to both of those was yes, you probably don't have too much non-yeast trub anyways, so I would fully support your plan. If your answer to either one is no, I would consider washing if I were you. If your answer was no to both, then I would strongly suggest washing your yeast.
 
I chill and whirlpool my wort and siphon mostly clear wort into the fermenter. If it's particularly cloudy looking I'll put a nylon bag over the autosiphon to filter further. I do use a hop bag because I don't want that hop material staying around long enough to leech grassy flavors into the beer. It works. I really only reuse if I want to brew a high gravity beer because its the best way to get enough yeast for one. Otherwise I'd rather buy a fresh vial of yeast than waste the time. Never gone over a 3rd generation.
 
I washed yeast today. There's so much stuff in the fermenter besides yeast that I think it's a good practice. I follow the yeast washing procedure show in the sticky at the top of the page, and it fits right into my bottling day with very little extra time. I do the sterile water ahead of time, so it's cold and in the fridge for a day or several days before I wash the yeast.
 
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