Yeast Washing Illustrated

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Brewitt said:
I'm not clear on why you say that. Nothing I said precludes a direct pitch. I think it is always best to make a starter but there should be no difference between pitching your washed yeast and pitching a purchased vial of yeast. Besides, isn't it best to add your nutrient to the wort?
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I meant, basically, a pitchable container of yeast + nutrients. In other words, something one could throw in there that had everything the yeast needed. That way, there would be no need to add yeast nutrient - it would already have been in solution with the yeast. As you pointed out, though, this could be counterproductive when trying to store the yeast.

Again, what I had in mind was an ideal solution of yeast + nutrients that could be thrown directly into a starter or five gallons of wort, no other additions necessary. Sorry if I was unclear :mug:
 
msa8967 said:
Anyone know if the quality of the water used to wash yeast will affect the results? We have tap water that is not suited for drinking so I have been buying RO water for all of my brewing needs.
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If you don't drink the water Or use it to brew I wouldn't suggest using it to keep your yeast in. It's a living system just like you're. Unless you can boil the water and drink it I'd keep doing things with the RO water. They are expensive but a whole system might be the best idea for you. They run around $5000
 
Hulud said:
Well I started the process today. Got home from work and in the picture is what I have (they are 1/2 pint jars). I feel there is too much sediment in them, is that correct?
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I have seen that much in a batch I've done. Either you cleaned it really well, had a great fermentation or missed everything. I'm going to say you did a good job. If you doubt it pitch one in a starter and see if it ferments. If it looks like one solid color you're good. If it has spots in it that are noticeably different to the untrained eye it's not yeast.
 
Yep. You want that top layer that is creamier looking. When you fill your jars, you want to be sure you wait 20-30 minutes before pouring from the carboy and do it slowly enough so that you aren't dumping the trub into your yeast jars. I did the same thing at first. Easy to just wash again by shaking the yeast into suspension and let sit for 20 then decant into a new, sterile jar. This should get you much cleaner yeast. Best of luck.
 
I had a fire to put out yesterday when I was doing the first stage of washing the yeast in the carboy and I didn't get back to the carboy for several hours. Now I see a layer of fairly clear liquid resting on top of massive trub. Should I just throw this out or try shaking it up again to see if I can get the yeast back into suspension?
 
stonebrewer said:
Yep. You want that top layer that is creamier looking. When you fill your jars, you want to be sure you wait 20-30 minutes before pouring from the carboy and do it slowly enough so that you aren't dumping the trub into your yeast jars. I did the same thing at first. Easy to just wash again by shaking the yeast into suspension and let sit for 20 then decant into a new, sterile jar. This should get you much cleaner yeast. Best of luck.
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Ok sounds good. But also if I am going to brew the same beer would I HAVE to wash it or would this work too?
 
msa8967 said:
I had a fire to put out yesterday when I was doing the first stage of washing the yeast in the carboy and I didn't get back to the carboy for several hours. Now I see a layer of fairly clear liquid resting on top of massive trub. Should I just throw this out or try shaking it up again to see if I can get the yeast back into suspension?
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By now you've no doubt already made a decision, but I would have just started over by shaking it up again. Absolutely.

A somewhat unrelated tip (which may have been mentioned somewhere already). I had always been concerned about adding too much oxygen back into the water at the step where you pour it into the carboy/bucket for the first time and then swirl it to loosen everything and get the yeast into suspension. What I do now is shake the heck out of the yeast and leftover beer to loosen everything before I add the water. That way, when I add the water, I don't have to shake it very much to get everything into suspension. Works for me. YMMV.
 
jwalker1140 said:
By now you've no doubt already made a decision, but I would have just started over by shaking it up again. Absolutely.

A somewhat unrelated tip (which may have been mentioned somewhere already). I had always been concerned about adding too much oxygen back into the water at the step where you pour it into the carboy/bucket for the first time and then swirl it to loosen everything and get the yeast into suspension. What I do now is shake the heck out of the yeast and leftover beer to loosen everything before I add the water. That way, when I add the water, I don't have to shake it very much to get everything into suspension. Works for me. YMMV.
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Instead of pouring it out I decided to leave it overnight hoping to get a reply from the forum. I will try shaking it again and seeing if I can collect any yeast. Thanks for the advice on how to avoid adding too much O2 to the process. I am going to try this out next time.
 
This has probably already been answered before but this is a huge thread. I washed some wlp500 about a year ago and have not had a need for it until now is it possibly still viable ? I know I have to make a starter to really find out but has anyone else successfully used washed yeast this far out ? Thanks.
 
Aschecte said:
This has probably already been answered before but this is a huge thread. I washed some wlp500 about a year ago and have not had a need for it until now is it possibly still viable ? I know I have to make a starter to really find out but has anyone else successfully used washed yeast this far out ? Thanks.
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Try it and see. I know that's vague, but there really is no way to know without trying.
 
Aschecte said:
This has probably already been answered before but this is a huge thread. I washed some wlp500 about a year ago and have not had a need for it until now is it possibly still viable ? I know I have to make a starter to really find out but has anyone else successfully used washed yeast this far out ? Thanks.
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You're likely at 10% or less viable yeast but I'm willing to bet it is still good. If it were me I'd make a 500ml starter of low gravity (1.020-1.025) starter and throw it on a stir plate. I'm betting it steps up just fine.
 
So the last brew I did with a whitelabs California ale yeast, I took the yeast and washed it according to posts I read here. I stored it in the fridge for a couple weeks and brewed again. I bottled and it's been a couple weeks. There is some kind of filmy substance on the top of the beer in some of the bottles. Not all of them. I drank a couple with no film and they seemed fine, though I could taste some sour off flavors..(it's an ipa). So today I thought I'd be brave and try one with the film at the top. It is not terrible (mostly because the hops come through well)...but that sour off flavor is quite a bit stronger and there are some small particles that keep rising to the top instead of going to the bottom like typical homebrew yeast. I guess my questions are as follows....is this an infection or just bottle conditioning krausen? If it is an infection could it have come from reusing the yeast? And lastly and most importantly, am I going to die if I drink all 40 bottles of this, because I'm probably gonna try it just to compare flavors.
 
Has anyone noticed any ill effects from washing yeasts after brewing a darker beer?

Was thinking of brewing some browns or stouts, but I need to wash some yeasts and re-stock my bank first... Was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
 
It's such a PITA to pour the yeast out of my carboy without getting all the shiz along with it.
 
happycymbals said:
So the last brew I did with a whitelabs California ale yeast, I took the yeast and washed it according to posts I read here. I stored it in the fridge for a couple weeks and brewed again. I bottled and it's been a couple weeks. There is some kind of filmy substance on the top of the beer in some of the bottles. Not all of them. I drank a couple with no film and they seemed fine, though I could taste some sour off flavors..(it's an ipa). So today I thought I'd be brave and try one with the film at the top. It is not terrible (mostly because the hops come through well)...but that sour off flavor is quite a bit stronger and there are some small particles that keep rising to the top instead of going to the bottom like typical homebrew yeast. I guess my questions are as follows....is this an infection or just bottle conditioning krausen? If it is an infection could it have come from reusing the yeast? And lastly and most importantly, am I going to die if I drink all 40 bottles of this, because I'm probably gonna try it just to compare flavors.
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Well it's hard to say of it an infection due to the washed yeast or contamination from bottling process. My vote is the bottling though or els you would have them all infected not just some of the bottles. Hope that helps. Btw no you want die from this but we all someday will die from something else.
 
TBaGZ said:
It's such a PITA to pour the yeast out of my carboy without getting all the shiz along with it.
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Try this:

(Step 1) Boil and cool yeast rinsing water.
(Step 2) Add water to carboy and swirl it around.
(Step 3) Tilt on its side, making sure to put some rags on each side so that it can't roll onto the floor!!
(Step 4) Wait 30 minutes, then pour....


An auto-siphon is actually the best way, as it doesn't disturb the trub at all, but this way can't be so bad.
 
HollisBT said:
Has anyone noticed any ill effects from washing yeasts after brewing a darker beer?

Was thinking of brewing some browns or stouts, but I need to wash some yeasts and re-stock my bank first... Was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
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Anyone?
 
Hw do you know how many yeast cells are in each mason jar when you follow the method listed in the first post? Most yeast starters I know of calculate based off the amount in a smack pack or vial.
 
DurtyChemist said:
Hw do you know how many yeast cells are in each mason jar when you follow the method listed in the first post? Most yeast starters I know of calculate based off the amount in a smack pack or vial.
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Go to Mr. Malty and use the "Repitch Slurry" tab and input the date of harvest and it will tell you your viability and how many mL of that slurry you would need for your batch. From that you can backcalculate how many billion cells you have to decide what size starter you need.
 
pabloj13 said:
Not at all. I washed 1056 from an oatmeal stout and used it for an IPA. You're decanting most of the washing liquid anyway.
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That was my thought, but wanted someone else to confirm it for me lol. Thanks :).
 
pabloj13 said:
Go to Mr. Malty and use the "Repitch Slurry" tab and input the date of harvest and it will tell you your viability and how many mL of that slurry you would need for your batch. From that you can backcalculate how many billion cells you have to decide what size starter you need.
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The is. I think I have a LOT of cells. I washed it really well and I have 30 ml of just yeast right now. So 60% of what I have is pure yeast and the rat is water.

Using Mr. malty I tell it it's the thickest setting and 25% non yeast. Is that a correct assumption or should I do something differently? I only say 65% attenuation so should I even keep this yeast or will it just be poor performing forever?
 
DurtyChemist said:
The is. I think I have a LOT of cells. I washed it really well and I have 30 ml of just yeast right now. So 60% of what I have is pure yeast and the rat is water.

Using Mr. malty I tell it it's the thickest setting and 25% non yeast. Is that a correct assumption or should I do something differently? I only say 65% attenuation so should I even keep this yeast or will it just be poor performing forever?
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If you have a nice creamy white yeast layer I would set the non-yeast percentage slider closer to 10%. If you're looking at settled yeast as 30mL don't worry about how much water, that is irrelevant. I think you are confusing attenuation and viability. The yeast will perform exactly like it did when you first used it, and in some cases better, if you washed it well. The viability doesn't matter except when trying to determine how large of a starter to make.
 
pabloj13 said:
If you have a nice creamy white yeast layer I would set the non-yeast percentage slider closer to 10%. If you're looking at settled yeast as 30mL don't worry about how much water, that is irrelevant. I think you are confusing attenuation and viability. The yeast will perform exactly like it did when you first used it, and in some cases better, if you washed it well. The viability doesn't matter except when trying to determine how large of a starter to make.
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oh i thought tie viability meant how long the cells were good for. I somehow convinced myself they make yeast differently for beer than microbiology.
 
DurtyChemist said:
oh i thought tie viability meant how long the cells were good for. I somehow convinced myself they make yeast differently for beer than microbiology.
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Viability is just what percentage of the yeast cells are still alive. When you first buy a Wyeast smack pack or White Labs vial you have 100 billion cells. As you get further from the production date, some of those cells die. When you are at 50% viability you have 50 billion cells. Same is true for washed yeast. The longer it sits, the more yeast die. The yeast that are alive are just fine, you just have to make a larger starter or make multiple steps of a starter to hit your target cell count.
 
Washed some yeast from a porter two weeks ago. Got 4 jelly jars full in fridge. My question is.... i want to brew this saturday (a stout). Do i just pull a jar out sat. Morning let it warm up, decant and pitch into stout? Or do i need to make a starter friday night?
 
mrwaffles said:
Washed some yeast from a porter two weeks ago. Got 4 jelly jars full in fridge. My question is.... i want to brew this saturday (a stout). Do i just pull a jar out sat. Morning let it warm up, decant and pitch into stout? Or do i need to make a starter friday night?
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Depends on how much yeast you have in your jar. Go to Mr Malty and choose the slurry tab and it will tell you how much you need. If you don't have enough, you can either use more than one jar, or make a starter.
 
Think I'll try this soon....how long can u reuse the yeast? While touring Highland Brewery in Asheville they mentioned they never use yeast after 8 generations if I remember correctly.
 
2BeerSpeer said:
Think I'll try this soon....how long can u reuse the yeast? While touring Highland Brewery in Asheville they mentioned they never use yeast after 8 generations if I remember correctly.
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Individual jars last up to a year (with good practices); most say 5-10 generations depending on how good your sanitization is.
 
I normally get about 4-5 jars out of a batch - G1. G2 will then be 4-5 more jars. If you were to do the math, even 5 generations will make more beer than you will probably ever home brew in your entire life. If you only saved 2 jars you'd still get quite a bit of use out of one $7-8 vial of yeast.

Now that I think of it, there's no need to keep that much yeast on hand for 5gal batches. I should be content with 2-3 jars per generation, each with a higher yeast concentration.
 
mrwaffles said:
Washed some yeast from a porter two weeks ago. Got 4 jelly jars full in fridge. My question is.... i want to brew this saturday (a stout). Do i just pull a jar out sat. Morning let it warm up, decant and pitch into stout? Or do i need to make a starter friday night?
Click to expand...

I used to do that with no issues, though my lag times were all over the map. So I started doing a starter and now my lag time is pretty much four hours. There are valid reasons for doing a starter other than lag time, so I would recommend that you do starters to make better beer. It may or may not be noticeable, the difference in a beer made with a starter or not, but for the peace of mind factor (and it's simple to do, so why not?) I always do a starter nowadays.

Cheers! :mug:
 
I have read that washing yeast works well for up to 5 generations but know I am wondering if does a yeast starter from washed yeast count as a generation? What if you ended up stepping up the size of a starter, will this count for a generation? (ie, if there a certain period of time for yeast activity to count as a generation?)

My gut says that making the starter will not count as a generation but since we had bad mexican food for dinner last night I am not wanting to trust my gut instincts.
 
Made a starter from the 25mL tube I had from 9/18 and it's taking off pretty well. It's in my growler with the lid on loose and when I stir it up the foam comes almost OUT of the top of the bottle.

2 pint starter
0.6 oz DME
sounds about right....I think this stuff will be a strong fermentation for an OctoAle I have planned on Sunday. Cold crash Saturday night by leaving it outside. Lows here are 40.



As far as washing and keeping a bunch of jars...yeah if you get 5 jars from each batch and NEVER go back to the first stock of 4 unused jars you'll end up with a lot of yeast. I'm personally washing and trying to condense it as much as possible to take up less room. Date it and I'll probably toss stuff that's 3 months or older. Yeast isn't so expensive that throwing out A SINGLE wash will break the bank.
 
Safale 05 explosion!

So I went to make a starter from some 05 I had washed. Noticed the top was a little distended, but being a moron, I did not bother to let the CO2 escape by popping the jelly jar open. Next brilliant move was when I decided to get the yeast into suspension by swirling the crap out of it. That's when all hades broke loose! :eek: The pressure bent the lid:
bgve6d.jpg


Yeast foam went EVERYWHERE! What a mess...Learn from my stupidity. Always vent your jars before swirling! :)
 
I’ve been using rehydrated dry yeast. I’m interested in yeast washing to save some money. From what I’ve read, there seem to be occasional problems with the washed yeast – contamination, viability problems, cell count, etc. With dry yeast being pretty cheap, is it worth risking a $30 batch of beer to save a packet of yeast?
 

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