Washing Yeast Problem

I started Yeast Ranching and brewed a Scottish 60/- with wyeast 1056 planning to use the yeast cake to pitch a Robust Porter. After reading posts here and elsewhere I swirled the cake up into about 2 cups of sterilized water ending up with about a quart of slurry. I placed this into the fridge and waited for the "stratification" to occurr planning to pour the (mostly) yeast off the (mostly) trub that settles to the bottom. It never stratified...

I ended up using it anyway and upping the pitching rate as calculated at the Mr Malty site. Anyone else had this problem before? Is it yeast strain specific? Did I do something wrong?

I usually start with a 1/2 gallon, not 2 cups, of water.

Swirl, let sit for 5-10 mins and the heavy trub will fall out. Transfer the cloudy water to another jar and wait again for the heavy stuff to drop out.

3 or 4 times of this and you'll have yeast that you can put in the fridge to fall out of the water.

Pour off most of the water and re-swirl and you should have enough yeast to split 4-5 times into smaller containers.

I just did this for the first time yesterday, and I noticed that the bottom layer of stuff to be discarded was really thin. I think, depending on your brewing process and how much crap it lets into your primary, there may not always be that big a "discard" layer. Though you still should have seen some separation between the liquid and the yeast layer ( the yeast should be a creamy grey-white color)

If you didn't see a "discard" layer, you might just have a pretty clean process (I use leaf hops, which seem to filter a bunch of junk out before the primary).

If you didn't see any separation at all, you may not have waited long enough.

Yeah, I just did this too last weekend and would agree with HB99. You need to use more water to get good separation.

Thanks All - I'll try a larger volume next time

I washed my WLP300 about 6 weeks ago.. and I only had to wait about 15 minutes before the majority of the JUNK settled out. I used that yeast about a week ago for another Heffe starter... worked great.

Pol

Can you harvest the yeast that settles out of a secondary carboy?

You can... BUT, if you are using a yeast that is a better flocculating strain, just be advised that you are harvesting the LEAST flocculant of that particular generation. You can, it will be cleaner, less flocculant and older.

Pol

I followed Palmer's book direction and I didn't get a discard layer either. I just assumed I filtered my brew really well. It was some Nottingham yeast. I did it while I was brewing my next batch so I pitched it right away. The shortest lag time I've ever had.... about 3-4 hours.

As far as secondary yeast, I think Palmer says it is not as preferable but is doable.

Someday I will rack onto a yeast cake... that would be sweet, especially in a Heffe... OHHH yah. For now, I just save my vials and refill them with my washed yeast... it is nice saving $$. My last Heffe was $14 with 10lbs of grain!


Pol

The Pol said:

Someday I will rack onto a yeast cake... that would be sweet, especially in a Heffe... OHHH yah. For now, I just save my vials and refill them with my washed yeast... it is nice saving $$. My last Heffe was $14 with 10lbs of grain!

Click to expand...

I've racked a dunkelweizen on top of a hefe yeast cake - WOW. I think 'explosive' is the perfect word to describe that ferment!

I love wheat....

Pol