Yeast washing

I read the wiki.........
I would think that the residue in the bottom of my primary along with half a quart of water would not fit into a 1 qt jar.

How long does it take for the separation to take place?

Does anybody have any pics of what the jars look like when they're ready to be transferred to the next jar?

Cos said:

I read the wiki.........
I would think that the residue in the bottom of my primary along with half a quart of water would not fit into a 1 qt jar.

Click to expand...

You don't need all of it, and not all will actually come out - it's sticky stuff. There's plenty of yeast in there.

Cos said:

How long does it take for the separation to take place?

Click to expand...

Not too long - I think I did 3 separate rinses all inside of an hour. I've reused that yeast after 2 months in the fridge, and it was just fine.

Cos said:

Does anybody have any pics of what the jars look like when they're ready to be transferred to the next jar?

Click to expand...

No, but the liquid will go mostly clear. Pour most of that off, and dump into another jar with boiled (and cooled) water to separate again. Leave whatever sticks to the bottom of the jar, you're trying to leave some of the barley proteins behind, and they settle first.

I did a poor job of it my first time, if I do say so myself, and still filled 2 beer bottles half full when I was done, and the yeast has survived just fine so far in the fridge.

kvh

When you do your next batch of beer, do you make a starter using this yeast or do you pitch directly?

I used yeast (actually, an ale yeast first used by me on an IPA, then washed and used on some apfelwein, then washed again and stored for 2 months in the fridge) for a second apfelwein batch. This last time I didn't bother making any starter, I just opened the bottle, sanitized the top of it with StarSan in a spray bottle, poured out some of the water in the top, re-sanitized, recapped (with a sanitized cap) and shook it up to get the yeast in solution.

Then, I just dumped it all in the batch, there were probably 3 oz of solid yeast in the bottom, I had bubbles within hours.

If I'd been keeping it in less than ideal conditions, or for an especially long time (4 months or more), I might have made a starter, but I've heard of people going more than a year with good results. Who knows!?!

kvh

It would be wise to make a starter instead of pitching directly. this way you rouse the yeast, and ensure its still viable.
plus it means no real lag time when pitching into primary.

A lot depends on how "clean" the beer in your fermenter is.

Did you filter when siphoning into the fermenter.
Did you use whole leaf hops or plugs.
I siphon and use whole leaf hops so most of what ends up on the bottom of my fermenter is yeast.

I use an applejuice jard. Fill 1/2 way with clean water and pour into the fermenter. Swirl the **** out of it and it will all come loose.

Pour back into the applejuice jar and let sit for 10 minutes. Then pour all but the last 1/8 inch off into another applejuice jar. What you left behind is the heavier sediment tht you do NOT want. toss it. Add some water to your newer continer...shake, let sit and pour off again.

Think of it like panning for gold. Except in this case, the gold is crap you don't want.

The yeast will be suspended in the liquid for a good 20-30 minutes before it tries to settle. This yeasty liquid is what you want.

Here are some varying degrees of yeast settlement:

The one in the middle just got harvested about 30 minutes ago. The one on the left was from last night and the one on the right I just pulled from the fridge after one week (different beer...hence a different color).

Why do you have air locks on those?

Cos said:

Why do you have air locks on those?

Click to expand...

Even after rinsing the yeasty, there will still be some slight CO2 production. Better to be safe than sorry. I won't remove the airlocks until I've thoroughly chilled and am ready to seal up in a beer bottle for longer term storage.

yeah, the info i read said you keep an airlock on them until the yeast is back in hibernation phase.

In the pics above:
If the one in the middle was harvested 30 min ago, why hasn't the junk settled out yet?

Do you use boiled water or tap water? I assume you are sanitizing your jars.

Cos said:

In the pics above:
If the one in the middle was harvested 30 min ago, why hasn't the junk settled out yet?

Do you use boiled water or tap water? I assume you are sanitizing your jars.

Click to expand...

The heavier junk actually has, and this was one washing later. Too may people try to "see" the yeast cleansing in action and it's too difficult. I just trust the laws of gravity to pull down the unwanteds and then I pour off the good stuff...repeat until I'm satisfied that I have mostly yeast.

I never work too hard at getting down to clean, white yeast. Too much work for litte-to-no return.

When those left two jars are chilled for about a week, they'll compact down to a nice dense 1.5 inch layer of yeast that I'll pour into beer bottles for longer storage.

I'm normally about an hour of washing (3 or 4 cycles) and I also put my yeast into apple juice containers (with an airlock) for a day or two to allow for and random fermentation to take place, then they go into bottles for long term storage.

I just washed my first yeast and collected five 12oz bottles, after about 2 days in the fridge I have about ¾ of an inch of white looking stuff in the bottom of each bottle. Does that sound right? The rest of the liquid in the bottle is clear looking beer. I only washed them 3 times is that enough?

mdd134 said:

I just washed my first yeast and collected five 12oz bottles, after about 2 days in the fridge I have about ¾ of an inch of white looking stuff in the bottom of each bottle. Does that sound right? The rest of the liquid in the bottle is clear looking beer. I only washed them 3 times is that enough?

Click to expand...

That sounds right and 3 times is plenty.

You now have enough yeast to pitch two different beers.