So I washed my yeast with beer

[Doed]

About two weeks ago I was reading one of the many threads on yeast washing and there was discussion around using non-alcoholic beer since this will keep the yeast in the environment it was in and that boiled water isn't really sterile water. I had made a pumpkin ale using US-05 and had collected 1.75 liters of yeast/trub from that batch. The yeast had set in my keezer for a couple of weeks and I was going to make another batch of the same pumpkin ale. I didn't really want to directly pitch the collected yeast since it was heavily laden with trub. So I went to the liquor store and bought a 12 pack of Busch NA which is less than .5% alcohol.

I then sanitized some jars with StarSan and proceeded to wash the yeast like you would normally. I ended up using 10 of the 12 cans. I collected 2 pint size jars full of yeast, trub, and beer. On brew day, I decanted about half the jar of liquid, swirled and pitched the rest from both jars. When I checked on the wort the next day fermentation had started and was pretty vigorous.

I will say that this was easier than the boiling water route but obviously there is a cost associated with it. Okay, boiling water is pretty easy, maybe I should have said much quicker than boiling water.

The pumpkin ale is still in primary, only been there a week, so it will be a while before I can report back on how this turned out.

 

[tagz]

Enter EAZ to tell you how naive you are.

 

[flars]

I haven't completely thought this through yet. I was thinking of a Starsan solution of pH 5.2 for rinsing harvested yeast.

 

[Zoidberg]

Ever heard of distilled water?

 

[iijakii]

I still think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be. When racking leave a tad of beer behind so you can swirl up the cake. Wait a couple minutes so most of the trub settles. Then save in your jars. Then when pitching just pour it all out and leave behind as much trub behind as you can, assuming you can see the yeast/trub divider line.

It's also hilarious to me that you spent more money on reusing your yeast than another packet would have cost.

 

[tagz]

Ever heard of distilled water?

i think his point was to have a solution with low pH and some alcohol to reduce the risk of bacteria growth.

 

[Doed]

Ever heard of distilled water?

Yes, but the idea was to keep the yeast in the same environment that it already was in. By using water you are changing the environment completely.

It's also hilarious to me that you spent more money on reusing your yeast than another packet would have cost.

Where were you when I considered doing this? I kind of feel like a ******* now. Meh, live and learn.