Re-using 007 Dry English???

[Paully]

I've recently gotten into washing and storing yeast for future use. One of my all time favorite strains is White Labs wlp007 Dry English Ale - awesome strain, great flavor profile, super attenuative and flocculant.

For yeast washing, possibly too flocculant! I've harvested this yeast from the bottom of a primary twice now, but with some difficulty. After agitating the cake, the yeast seems to drop out of suspension as fast as (if not faster than) the trub. This makes it very difficult to get a nice, clean cake, in my experience.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? Is it even a problem worth worrying about? And what is preferrable, lots of yeast with some of the bad stuff mixed in, or a very small amount of pure yeast? And, has anyone else had this problem with 007?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[brew2enjoy]

With WLP007, I started making starters bigger than what I actually needed and just splitting the starter into a few jars. That way there is really no worry about hops and all that other junk you get when washing yeast. I tried washing 007 one time and that was enough for me!

 

[Braufessor]

With WLP007, I started making starters bigger than what I actually needed and just splitting the starter into a few jars. That way there is really no worry about hops and all that other junk you get when washing yeast. I tried washing 007 one time and that was enough for me!

I have found this to be a good strategy as well - It is at least "as easy" to get the yeast before fermentation as it is after fermentation, and requires no "washing" and then just step it up into a bigger starter...

I actually do this with most of my yeast, unless I know I am going to brew with something within a couple weeks of getting it out of my fermenter.

 

[Paully]

I've heard this method mentioned before. Do you store the extra yeast under the starter, or decant the starter off, introduce some sterile water and store the yeast under that?

 

[brew2enjoy]

I've heard this method mentioned before. Do you store the extra yeast under the starter, or decant the starter off, introduce some sterile water and store the yeast under that?

I've used both methods with no problems. I've got a starter of WLP007 going right now.

 

[tagz]

Woodlands blog has been showing that the viability of yeast mixed with trub is just as high as well washed yeast. The part you want to separate is the liquid layer because it can be higher in bacteria. I've switched to pouring water in, letting it settle, decanting the liquid, and jarring up all the sediment (unless there is a large amount of hop debris). Then i top off with sanatized water. You loose a ton of yeast when you try to remove the trub and there is little benefit. I rinsed some 1968 which is super flocculant and have two jars with 250 ml each!