Washing yeast......

I have a liquid irish yeast from Wyeast.

Im planning on washing it.

I put the liquid beer and trub into a pyrex container. The trub has settles and left me with 50% of the yeast on top it looks like.

How do I wash it a second time? Empty the liquid on top and pour more in from the primary?

Or empty it of the trub after taking the good yeast and then getting more of the trub?

Im a little cojnfused on how to rewash even when reading the step by steps...:fro:

Hmmm, I've done this before and only washed it once. I found it made no difference to fermentation or taste to the second batch. I'd say rinsing it once will more than suffice. Heck, I've taken to not rinsing it at all now and still found zero difference but maybe that's just me.

Anyone else?

If you already have a white yeast layer on top of the trub you waited too long for the second stage of washing. Swirl the container to get the yeast back in suspension, then pour the cloudy liquid into another sanitized container with some fresh water that has been boiled and cooled.

Typically, you decant the liquid into the next container as soon as the trub settles out. I go from one mason jar to another, then into sanitized white labs vials for storage.

The reason for thoroughly rinsing is so the yeast can be stored longer before reuse, not because of any effect it will have on taste if used quickly.

Ahhhhh, that's great info Jaded Dog. I've always rolled my yeast over to a new batch within a week and made a starter well beforehand so there's been no worry about it having died.

So how long do you figure you could keep a thouroughly rinsed yeast sample?

ive only had it in the fridge for 2 hours now.

There is a small layer of white on top.

Nostrildamus said:

Ahhhhh, that's great info Jaded Dog. I've always rolled my yeast over to a new batch within a week and made a starter well beforehand so there's been no worry about it having died.

So how long do you figure you could keep a thouroughly rinsed yeast sample?

Click to expand...

I have never kept any longer than a month or two, but I think homebrewer_99 says he keeps it up to 6 months. Some of the cells will die off in that time, but if you make a starter it's no problem.

How much sterilized water did you add to your trub?

I usually pour in about 1/2 gal. Swirl the yeast off the bottom of the primary into a gallon jug. After about 5 mins much of the heavy trub will settle out. Pour off the liquid into anther jug and save. Pour the trub down the drain or toilet...good for the septic system... Let the second jug sit for about 10 mins. If you get more trub falling out be sure to sanitize a 3d container and pour off the cloudy water into it. Toss out the trub fromthe second container.

At this time you can put the jug in the fridge and let it sit overnight. Morre of the yeast will fall out.

Pour off most of the water and re-swirl the water to get the yeast back into circulatiopn. Once that's done pour the yeast back into the vials or smaller containers. I use baby food jars.

britishbloke said:

ive only had it in the fridge for 2 hours now.

There is a small layer of white on top.

Click to expand...

2 hours is a long time and being in the fridge will make the yeast drop out faster. I usually decant the liquid within 30-45 minutes at room temperature.

I just used the extra beer on the trub.

Im going to decant it and then re-add water into the main trub there. And get more.?

boil up some water and let it cool and sanitize another container. Add the cooled water to the new container. Swirl your existing container to get the yeast back in suspension, and pour that liquid into the new container leaving the trub behind. More trub may fall out, once it does, pour the existing liquid into yet another sanitized container and you are good to go. Throw the yeast in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Thanks Jaded.

Im going to have to give in and get a membership here.

This is the best beer forum Ive found.:fro:

Im making another chocalate oatmeal stout and am using the old yeast I used for the previous batch.

I reused the yeast cake once but now the trub is too high and needs to be cleaned out.....

And when making a starter dont I have to check the OG to make sure its close enough to what my beer is going to be.?

britishbloke said:

Thanks Jaded.

Im going to have to give in and get a membership here.

This is the best beer forum Ive found.:fro:

Click to expand...

Good man! I'll drink to that!

britishbloke said:

Im making another chocalate oatmeal stout and am using the old yeast I used for the previous batch.

I reused the yeast cake once but now the trub is too high and needs to be cleaned out.....

And when making a starter dont I have to check the OG to make sure its close enough to what my beer is going to be.?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Did you use the same amount of malt as the previous batch. If so, then you know what it's supposed to be.

If you are really concerned, fill another primary with your wort, take your measurements and add it to the primary with the yeast cake.

Some people will actually remove half the trub and wash it while pitching the wort on the remaining cake.

OK so I have the liquid yeast.

Now what do I do? I can add pure DME to this mix can I?

I cant boil it. How do I go about starting this fiuel up?

Are you asking how to make a starter? I'm confused.

sorry sorry, im a little

OK so I have washed the yeast a few times. Now how do I make a starter out of that?

I cant put the dme directly in right?

Right, you boil a mini-wort basically, some DME and about a litre of water - try to do the ratio so the gravity comes close to the target original gravity of the beer you intend to brew later. Boil, cool down to 70F approx, put into sanitized jug, aerate like hell by shaking, then add the yeast you have washed into it, shake some more, and put your airlock on it. Wait 24 hours or so, and you are ready to pitch the starter into the chilled wort of your brew.

britishbloke said:

Thanks Jaded.

Im going to have to give in and get a membership here.

This is the best beer forum Ive found.:fro:

Click to expand...

Do it. You'll save a lot more than a membership in time, effort and wasted materials.

That, and the incredibly witty banter make it more than worth it...

britishbloke said:

sorry sorry, im a little

OK so I have washed the yeast a few times. Now how do I make a starter out of that?

I cant put the dme directly in right?

Click to expand...

There are really great instruction on making a starter at howtobrew.com. Just ignore the stuff about prepping the smack pack.

TheJadedDog said:

There are really great instruction on making a starter at howtobrew.com. Just ignore the stuff about prepping the smack pack.

Click to expand...

What, you don't sleep with your yeast????

OK so im washing the yeast again from my batch of oatmeal stout.

This last part at the bottom of the carboy was emptied and put into a glass. It has these strange looking whitish blobs/gunk? :cross: in it. Im not sure if that was oatmeal but it looks real white.

Im wondering if its worth washing this part of the yeast. Maybe it is yeast but it looks odd looking.

FlyGuy said:

What, you don't sleep with your yeast????

Click to expand...

No, it walked out on me last week, something about being sick and tired of doing all the work around here :cross: .

britishbloke said:

OK so im washing the yeast again from my batch of oatmeal stout.

This last part at the bottom of the carboy was emptied and put into a glass. It has these strange looking whitish blobs/gunk? :cross: in it. Im not sure if that was oatmeal but it looks real white.

Im wondering if its worth washing this part of the yeast. Maybe it is yeast but it looks odd looking.

Click to expand...

OK, you need to boil and cool 1/2 gal of water and add it to the yeast cake. The water will break up the globules and thin out any remaining beer and sugar from the cake.

Swirl it for a couple of seconds/minutes to do so.

Pour it all into a sanitized gallon container. Have another on hand. After a few minutes most of the heavy trub will fallout. Pour of the cloudy water (this is suspended yeast) into the second container. Pour the trub from the first container down the drain. Repat the process as long as you see trub falling out.

I usually repeat this process about 4 times to clean it as well as can be expected. When the water clears out in a day or so you can pour of most of the water, reswirl and seperate into smaller containers.

Damn, im also trying to wash yeast and i made a boo boo. After racking my beer off the secondary to bottle bucket, i left the last 1/4 inch of beer in. I just swirled around the beer on the yeast cake to get the yeasties into suspension and poured that into a glass container.

So what is the best i'll ever have? Watery beer with yeast and no sediment?

You have me confused. You are trying to harvest the yeast from the secondary? Is that what you have in the jar? If it came from primary, and is in a sanitized jar, you can wash it as described in this thread and elsewhere. If it came from secondary, my understanding is you don't want to harvest and re-use that yeast.

efreem01 said:

Damn, im also trying to wash yeast and i made a boo boo. After racking my beer off the secondary to bottle bucket, i left the last 1/4 inch of beer in. I just swirled around the beer on the yeast cake to get the yeasties into suspension and poured that into a glass container.

So what is the best i'll ever have? Watery beer with yeast and no sediment?

Click to expand...

You're fine.

What you have can be pitched as is...no need to wash. If you want to store it for some time???

What I would do is boil a couple cups of water and chill it down to room temp. Pour it into your jar with your beer yeast mix, swirl and then chill it. When the mix gets super cold, the yeast will fall out and leave relatively clear liquid above. THis can take several days. Pour off the clear liqued and then pour the yeast pudding into a glass bottle, fill the remainder of the bottle with boiled/cooled water and cap it.

The only reason you would want to do this is to remove the remaining beer and potential fermentables.