Yeast Wash and Re-pitching

I'm probably a bit premature in my concern here, but yesterday I re-pitched some WLP300 that I had washed that morning. From what I understood I would get quite and explosive fermentation, and I even devised a 1" Blowoff tube in anticipation, however this mornign I went and checked it out and there was no activity and no Krausen on the beer. I guess I was just curious if I screwed something up or if I just need to RDWHAHB? Fortunately, if need be I have three other jars I could pitch.

Here was my yeast washing process (with pics):
Yeast Washing - morebeer

I repitched the larger jar about 5-6 hours after washing it, I just left it out and didn't refrigerate it.

You might want to invest in a stir plate...I rinsed a couple batches of WLP100...
It took 24 hours for the origional yeast to start the airlock bubbling...
8 - 10 hours with a starter from the stir plate...
Here is a pic of my starter with a FG to match the batch...Check the foam after 1 hour...
I poured most of the liquid off the top before making starter...

Lordsoth said:

I'm probably a bit premature in my concern here, but yesterday I re-pitched some WLP300 that I had washed that morning. From what I understood I would get quite and explosive fermentation, and I even devised a 1" Blowoff tube in anticipation, however this mornign I went and checked it out and there was no activity and no Krausen on the beer. I guess I was just curious if I screwed something up or if I just need to RDWHAHB? Fortunately, if need be I have three other jars I could pitch.

Here was my yeast washing process (with pics):
Yeast Washing - morebeer

I repitched the larger jar about 5-6 hours after washing it, I just left it out and didn't refrigerate it.

Click to expand...

The yeast should be viable after such a short period of time. Wait at least 72 hours than check the gravity.

What temp is the fermenter?

Clonefarmer said:

What temp is the fermenter?

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Right now it's sitting at 68°

Washed yeast made into a starter can create some pretty quick and violent fermentations. Washed yeast without a starter will still ferment just fine, but will generally have a longer lag time, and probably won't be as spectacular.

Long story short, get yourself an Erlenmeyer flask.

llazy_llama said:

Washed yeast made into a starter can create some pretty quick and violent fermentations. Washed yeast without a starter will still ferment just fine, but will generally have a longer lag time, and probably won't be as spectacular.

Long story short, get yourself an Erlenmeyer flask.

Click to expand...

Ahhh ok, I guess I was hoping that since I used it so soon after washing and without cooling it, that I wouldn't need a starter. I probably should have just pitched a cup or two of the trub directly without washing?

Personally, I would have just pitched onto the yeast cake, and then used the yeast washing technique after the second batch.

No worries though, it'll still come out fine. There should be plenty of active yeast in that mason jar.

Ok cool, sounds like I'll just need some more patience than I had anticipated.

Thanks for the help!

llazy_llama said:

Personally, I would have just pitched onto the yeast cake, and then used the yeast washing technique after the second batch.

No worries though, it'll still come out fine. There should be plenty of active yeast in that mason jar.

Click to expand...

This is certainly a newbie question but what do mean when you say "just pitched onto the yeast cake"? Is it as simple as dumping the next batch directly into the fermenter with the old trub and yeast still tight on the bottom? I'd like to do this for my next batch but I'm worried about affecting the flavor of the beer due to pellet hops in the trub. I have an oatmeal stout in my fermenter and I want to put a scotch ale on the old yeast cake. Just don't know how.

Rubberband said:

This is certainly a newbie question but what do mean when you say "just pitched onto the yeast cake"? Is it as simple as dumping the next batch directly into the fermenter with the old trub and yeast still tight on the bottom? I'd like to do this for my next batch but I'm worried about affecting the flavor of the beer due to pellet hops in the trub. I have an oatmeal stout in my fermenter and I want to put a scotch ale on the old yeast cake. Just don't know how.

Click to expand...

Just rack the old beer out, and pitch the new beer in. EZ-sauce.

It is that simple, but I don't think going from an oatmeal stout to a scotch ale would necessarily be a great idea. Do you mean a Strong Scotch Ale? In that case, it would probably be fine. If you mean a Scottish Export (60, 70, 90 shilling or /-) then I wouldn't expect it to come out tasting alright.

The general rule of thumb is to go from lighter to darker. If you brew a Kolsch or a Cream Ale, you can pretty much pitch whatever you want on top of that cake, assuming that you know what flavor profile (if any) you can expect from the original yeast, and that it's going to work with the new beer. For instance, if I brewed a Hefe Weizen using a Hefe yeast (known for strong phenolics and fruit flavors) I probably wouldn't want to do a Dry Stout on that yeast cake. I could, however, probably get away with a darker Dunkelweizen. I could absolutely do another Hefe without worry.

Ultimately, it's up to you to decide what's best for your beer. I don't think that a Scottish Export would taste bad fermented on an Oatmeal Stout yeast cake, but it probably wouldn't meet the style guidelines. It might be a bit strange, but it might just taste great.

Edited: Oh, if you do go ahead with the yeast cake idea, put a blow off tube on that bad boy. Things tend to get pretty violent with that much yeast.

A strong scotch ale would be the next beer to go onto the yeast. Thanks for the advice, this will save me from making a starter and spending another $7 for liquid yeast.

I think I'll purchase a funnel with a filter to keep some of the trub out of the fermenter. I am going to try yeast washing, so I'd like to start with a cake that is mostly yeast and not hops.

I came home tonight at about 8pm and I'm happy to say I saw some nice krausen formation. No bubbling activity, probably because the C02 can't build up enough pressure to bubble out of my 1" blow off tube I'd guess. So I layered a bunch of cellophane over the 1" hole I cut in my bucket lid for the blowoff tube, and stuck my 3-piece airlock through it and it is now bubbling away. I always like the piece of mind of seeing a bubbling airlock, even though know it isn't really necessary.

Wow, that was fast fermentation. The Dunkelweizen took off pretty good Saturday evening, and was done by Sunday afternoon. By "done" I mean no airlock activity and a receding krausen. I left it be, but I just had to take an FG this morning out of curiosity, sure enough it was down to 1.018 (OG 1.051). I was expecting about 1.012 FG but I imagine it may drop some more in the next 3 weeks sitting in the primary. Essentially I had an 18 hour fermentation, definitely my fastest yet, although it wasn't very aggressive, the krausen never got more than 1/4-1/2" in thickness.

BTW here is the Dunkeweizen I made for those interested.
http://webpages.charter.net/lordsoth/Dunkelweizen.pdf