washing yeast help

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CliffMongoloid

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As i was racking a black ipa to secondary last night i thought why dont i try to wash this yeast.

Ive never done this before, watched some videos and gave it a shot, i dont believe i did it right so ill state what i did.

I boiled a gallon of water
Let cool to about 68f
Poured in bottom of bucket with trub
Swirled around for a min or so
Poured into sanitized one gallon carboy
Left in fridge over night, tin foil covering opening

Am i doomed? Should i dump?
 
My plan is to get ball jars tonight
Sanitize them

Then shake the carboy and let settle for 20 mins, the pour off top layer to ball jars

Is this a good plan?
 
I haven't done it myself yet but I'm where you are now, I've done a lot of research and will be trying soon. With that said, about the only thing I see wrong is the fridge over night. Most sources I've read say just to wait about 20 mins for everything to separate. Essentially what you've done is cold crash your wash. Now most of the yeast cells will be in the trub cake. Good luck with it, hopefully I can learn from how yours comes out.
 
I'd leave it now and just take it out when you are ready to wash it. You'll need to get everything back in suspension by swirling. Then you follow the directions after that to start separating the yeast. Good luck!
 
CliffMongoloid said:
Hmm solid point

Im leaving for work in a few, should i take it outta the fridge?
Click to expand...

When you get home take out to room temp. Swirl it around to break everything up then let it sit for 20 min or so. A lot of the trub will settle. Then pour the milky looking liquid slowly into your sanitized ball jars. Try not to pour the trub that has settled. Put the ball jars in the fridge. You can wash it subsequent times if you want.
 
Flykilbosa said:
When you get home take out to room temp. Swirl it around to break everything up then let it sit for 20 min or so. A lot of the trub will settle. Then pour the milky looking liquid slowly into your sanitized ball jars. Try not to pour the trub that has settled. Put the ball jars in the fridge. You can wash it subsequent times if you want.
Click to expand...

Ok good thanks, cause i left for work and left it in there haha
 
CliffMongoloid said:
Ok good thanks, cause i left for work and left it in there haha
Click to expand...

As sensitive as you think yeast is or people say...don't be intimidated, I've found the harvest/wash process is pretty easy and it saves me about 20% of the cost of a 5 gallon batch vs buying new yeast every batch.
 
What I want to know is why is it necessary to wash the yeast. I get that you are trying to separate the trub but why. I mean what difference does it make if some gets into the next beer. What I do, (on a 20 gallon batch) is I take 1 of my bucket fermenters - after racking the beer into the keg swirril up the remaining slurry and pour it into sanitized mason jar, close it up tight and then straight into the fridge. I am only using 1/4 of the total yeast produced and it is more than enough to kick off a vigorous fermentation on the next 20 gallons. I have kept this up successfully for as many as 5 brews. then I start over with a fresh culture just to be safe. So I ask again, why wash it? seems to me like just another opportunity to introduce a nasty into the yeast.
 
I just used yeast I saved labeled 7/28/2012 --- here's what I did ( and continue to do )

After I rack off the wort/beer from the carboy, which has settled for 3/4 weeks - Using a clean funnel and bottles, pour what's left into (2) 22oz flip-top bottles. Label, date and put in the fridge.... When I want to use this yeast for a batch of beer --- I put one half cup of DME in my flask with about 3 cups of water, boil this for a minute or two, cover and let cool. When it's cooled off, pour the beer off of the old yeast and pour the remaining "stuff" on your DME/water mixture --- shake well or turn on your stir plate. Add an airlock and within 2 - 3 hours you will see action.

Dump this into your next batch ---- within 12 - 14 hours you will be smiling when your airlock is going crazy.....
 
Flykilbosa said:
When you get home take out to room temp. Swirl it around to break everything up then let it sit for 20 min or so. A lot of the trub will settle. Then pour the milky looking liquid slowly into your sanitized ball jars. Try not to pour the trub that has settled. Put the ball jars in the fridge. You can wash it subsequent times if you want.
Click to expand...

Thank you that was very helpful
 
Nah it will be fine let it sit for a bit longer and start pouring slowly. You can wash it again if need be but I wouldn't, I bet it's ok. Post a picture of how it looks at this stage.
 
ForumRunner_20130328_204544.png

This is about 45 mins of sitting
 
What you pour off...you can do even more than what's in the picture I cropped...it looks like a lot of trub in there, but don't worry there's yeast in that jar somewhere!
 
CliffMongoloid said:
This is about 45 mins of sitting
Click to expand...

That is too clear on top. The yeast you want is mixed in that trub. I have been washing yeast successfully for a couple years so I'm not just pulling this out of my @SS!!! I would take your Mason jars and boil them in water with the lids for about 10 minutes. Capture full jars of water and put the lids on with boiled tongs if possible. Sanitize at least. Put jars in a water bath to cool to at least 70°. Let that gallon jug settle the whole time, even stick it back in the fridge. Pour off the brown liquid (beer) in the jug. Pour in cooled sterile water from the jars and shake the crap out of it. Immediately put the lids back on the jars. Whatever settles in the first 15-20 minutes is trub--dead yeast, protein, hops, etc. What you want is the yeast still in suspension, so the liquid looks cloudy. Pour that into your empty Mason jars. That is what you want to save. There will still be some trub but mostly yeast. You can repeat the process if you feel there is more trub than you'd like. When everything settles there will be a layer of tan trub with a whiter creamier layer on top. That's the yeast.
 
I went ahead and attempted via the first advice, i think it worked, first attempt tho so i got time to learn, when I'm all done i will post pics of the jars for you're review

Thanks for all the advice!

Knowledge is power!
 
CliffMongoloid said:
This is what i wound up with
Click to expand...

It's tough to see in those pics, but if that layer at the bottom is yeast you're golden...throw them in the fridge and get a starter going with one of those before you brew next time!
 
Glad it worked....you probably could have gotten more out of all that was in there, but work on it next time. Now you have to get a starter going tomorrow so you can brew this weekend and put that yeast to work!
 
I just pulled this out of the carboy last night...I washed it and you can still see there is a bit of trub. I've never had a negative impact using a harvest like this on the next beer. I will decant it then make a starter with it all while drinking a homebrew.



image-2214980263.jpg
 
HBCBrewmaster said:
Why is it necessary to wash it?
Click to expand...

There are many reasons but a few are removing trub--dead yeast cells , hot and cold break, hop debris, etc. so you have a nice clean pitch. Some elements in the trub can cause off flavors (such as contributing to sulfur production according to Gordon Strong) and unwashed yeast can carry over flavors from the previous brew. It is recommended to use unwashed yeast quickly like within a week-while I have successfully used washed yeast that is a year old. Washing also makes it easier to split into several small containers so I can make one vial or smack stretch farther.
 
TANSTAAFB said:
There are many reasons but a few are removing trub--dead yeast cells , hot and cold break, hop debris, etc. so you have a nice clean pitch. Some elements in the trub can cause off flavors (such as contributing to sulfur production according to Gordon Strong) and unwashed yeast can carry over flavors from the previous brew. It is recommended to use unwashed yeast quickly like within a week-while I have successfully used washed yeast that is a year old. Washing also makes it easier to split into several small containers so I can make one vial or smack stretch farther.
Click to expand...

That all makes sense I guess. Thanks for clearing that up.

I usually just dump 1/4 of my yeast slurry straight from the bucket into a sanitized mason jar and throw it into the fridge for a future brew. I make a starter from this to wake it up. My airlocks are usually bubbling in 6 to 12 hours. I get 5 or 6 brews and never had a problem with off flavors. I used to just re pitch onto the same yeast cake but after about 5 or 6 times I got some serious off flavors. My hbs told me that it was because the same exact yeast was mutating after so many fermentations. So I figure by only using a quarter of it each time it has a chance to replicate new and hence younger generations. Im just having a hard time believing that such a small ammount of trube and cold break and hop particulate could affect flavor that much when diluting it with 5 gallons of fresh beer. But then again, I use hop bags and my boilermaker and hop blocker are very effective at keeping the cold break out of my fermenter. After 5 or 6 cycles I start with a fresh culture just to be safe. Because I brew on a 20 gallon set up I save a ton of money on yeast this way.
 
And ^^^that^^^ makes sense too! I don't brew as often as I'd like and I usually switch up styles and strains, so I need to be able to save yeast for longer than you. And by splitting each generation into several smaller containers which I then build up, I minimize the chance of mutation and maximize each purchase.
 
Hey if anyone is interrested, I would highly recommend pierre rajot "first steps in yeast culture." With a small investment in twist on cap testubes an inoculating loop and a large pressure cooker you can save pure yeast samples in pure sugar water for years and years. Its a great way to expand the brewing hoby.
 
HBCBrewmaster said:
Hey if anyone is interrested, I would highly recommend pierre rajot "first steps in yeast culture." With a small investment in twist on cap testubes an inoculating loop and a large pressure cooker you can save pure yeast samples in pure sugar water for years and years. Its a great way to expand the brewing hoby.
Click to expand...

That seems excessive
 
CliffMongoloid said:
That seems excessive
Click to expand...

Perhaps for some or most. But I will save 6 vials of a yeast this way each time I buy a new yeast ensuring that I never need to repurchase that strain. I have now archived 5 strains and will archive 3 more. I enjoy doing it as an extension of my hobby. The next thing will be plating in auger so I can isolate the strains used in the bottle conditioned belgians which often use multiple strains. But I think this is the topic of an entirely new thread.
 

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