Basic Yeast washing/primary trub question

Hello fellow brewheads,

I'm currently brewing a Belgian Single blond with WLP530. I'm only 2 days into primary fermentation, but I had a couple questions about harvesting the yeast to use in my next brew, which will be some kind of funky sour belgian blond.

I did something unique with this brew - I dumped EVERYTHING from the boil kettle into the fermenter (6.5 gal glass carboy). Within 20 minutes it looks like a lot of gunk had settled at the bottom. I instantly regretted doing this because I thought:

- This might make it more difficult to clear the beer (generally it seems like the less crap you start with floating around, the less crap you'll end with in the bottle)

- It might be harder to harvest and clean the yeast if there is a huge trub of other crap at the bottom after primary.

Thoughts? Should I harvest the yeast from secondary instead of primary to help filter some of the hop sediment out?



Thanks!
Chris

 

I wouldnt try to harvest that yeast. That is a lot of trub and hop matter. It would take several washing steps. I would suggest harvesting from your starters. Much less work and cleaner yeast

 

Nothing changes. Do the same to the yeast as you would any other time you harvest.

I agree that harvesting from the starter is best but you didn't, so here you are

 

You need to check brulosophers method. Nothing wrong with your yeast and you can use it without washing it.

 

Thanks for the tips! I've never harvested yeast before, so it'll be my first time trying after this batch is done fermenting. I've heard of many brewers just dumping new wort right on top of a previous yeast cake, but I wouldn't do that in my case since I've got SO much other sediment.

If I rack this on Saturday, I'm sure I'll get a clean settling in the secondary. Can I just use that?

 

Provided your sanitation procedures are good, you could wash it and re-use it without issue. I prefer to overbuild my starters and save a portion rather than try to wash yeast.

There are people that say it will be fine even unwashed. You can check out the Simple Yeast Storage Procedure Thread for more information.

 

Duplicate Post

 

Trub in the fermenter will not hurt final beer clarity. In fact, there's anecdotal evidence that it actually enhances it. Don't worry about it.

As far as reusing the yeast, just do it. No need to wash, just direct pitch it into your next brew. The trub won't hurt anything. Honestly, I'm not sure what the point of washing is. Seems like a waste of time and effort, as well as introducing another avenue for contamination.

 

That's what we do. Dump it all in and use the cakes as they are. I make a qt for lagers and a pint for ales. So easy a cave man can do it. OOOOoooooggggaaBooooooga!!!

 

Will do - thanks! Another reason that should work well is because the sour beer I brew next will also be a Belgian Blond, so I'm not worried about any flavors the trub may bring along with it.