Seeking opinions (washed yeast)

Hullo everyone!

The attached pic is of un"washed" yeast I harvested from my very first brew (Brewer's Best English Brown Ale) on bottling day, Jan 25th. My questions are as follows:

1. Is this still usable, and if so any special instructions?
2. Can I use store-bought cider (the kind normally in abundance during Thanksgiving) or should I start with pure apple juice and spice during secondary?

Thanks for the input in advance!

-Casey

I think it depends on your collecting/harvesting method... was it sanitary? I'm just not sure. I think unless you managed a very sanitary rinsing & collecting method, you could risk the chance of infection.

Assuming you followed good sanitation..I think you'd be fine using this. I would pour off all of the extra wort you have in this bottles now and add some slurry to maybe a quart of Apple Juice for a day or two. Then dump the whole thing in.

When you washed the yeast did you remove most of the hop sludge? If not, this will show up in your cider. (Store bought cider is fine in my opinion, just make sure it's preservative free)

Bottles and equipment were sanitized. The "sludge" is what I think is the bottom layer, more clearly seen in the bottle on the right

I saw a really good how-to thread with pics about washing yeast on here the other day. I would search that out. Answers all your questions.

jkoegel said:

I saw a really good how-to thread with pics about washing yeast on here the other day. I would search that out. Answers all your questions.

Click to expand...

How about a link?

Found it over in the yeast/fermentation section. Its a sticky there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

jkoegel said:

Found it over in the yeast/fermentation section. Its a sticky there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Click to expand...

+1 to the above thread. It's such a simple, but effective way to harvest and the presentation is great.

Well, I pitched what I could salvage out of the larger bottle yesterday onto the following recipe:

2 gal apple juice
1 gal apple cider
3 packed cups brown sugar

-dissolved the BS into 0.5 gal of the juice
-took 1.5 cups of the remaining juice/cider mixture to "start"the yeast
-stirred like a mad man to aerate

36 hours in; the airlock is not bubbling away mad, but the yeast has formed a nice krausen

Here's to hoping all goes well!

OG ended up at 1.062

... So it's now 56 hours in and I still do not see any airlock activity. My concern is that I under pitched. Should I leave it longer or go buy more yeast?

IIRC - and I don't remember where I saw it, bugger -

That middle, kind of creamy looking layer is where your yeast are. The bottom layer is hops and grain bits and such (heavier) and the top is dead yeast (hulls - useful to the yeast if you're pitching into something not high in nitrogen, and/or you're not using nutrient.)

So. If you still had the larger bottle, I'd shake it again. When the heavy bits have settled out and you start seeing the cream-colored layer accumulate, pour the top off into another sanitized bottle. This second bottle has all of your viable yeast now. If you were particular about autolysis (or you had some bizarre hatred of trub) you could pour the top off when the yeast finish settling out and the darker hulls started to pile on top.

If you don't have the jug anymore.. go spend two bucks on some new yeast

Shaking up and pitching the second jar seems to have done the trick! Now to sure back and relax for two weeks...