Washing yeast a week later?

[TacoGuthrie]

I had a yeast cake sitting in my carboy for 6 days before I was able to wash it. It had a little bit of wort on top of it (.5 cm) and was covered with airlock and stored around 65 degrees.

Will there be any issues with washing this yeast this many days in?

 

[BBL_Brewer]

I'll say up front here that I don't do yeast washing.....never have and never will. That said.......IMO.....stressed yeast from a secondary fermenter is not the way to stretch out yeast. That's not to say that you can't do it and that the yeast won't be viable.....but why go to all that trouble to brew a batch of perfectly good wort just to pitch some yeast that may or may not do the job you expect them to do. Also, regardles of washing, I believe that bacteria can and do make it through the washing process and further put your hard earned wort at risk. Not telling you not to do it.....just throwing out my two cents. What I do to stretch out yeast is to make an extra large starter from smack pack and then split that into multiple jars and freeze. I can thaw them whenever I want as long as I plan ahead for brewday, bring em up with a yeast stater and away we go. This lets me avoid all the other madness out there like dumping more wort on a yeast cake or harvesting from fermentors. It also greatly reduces the chance of an infection taking hold since I start from smack pack every time and then run that yeast through two starters and one batch of beer and then down the drain. Once you get a good culture and freezing plan in place.......all that other stuff is uneccesarry. Of course it's not for everyone.......just trying to help you out. Check out this link if you're interested in the prospect of freezing yeast. I have a more simplified method that works great for me if you want to pick my brain.


http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/yeast_harv_freeze.html



Cheers