Yeast Washing Illustrated

Bernie Brewer · Oct 16, 2007

It seems to me that there have been quite a few inquiries about yeast washing lately, so since I was racking/washing today, I grabbed the digital camera to illustrate one way of doing it. I have had great success with this method, so I thought I'd share. Here goes:

The only materials that I use besides regular racking equipment is this:
4 pint sized Mason jars w/lids
1 larger container for extra water
1 kitchen tongs
My old boiling kettle from my original brewing kit.

I put all the stuff- lids and all- in the pot and add enough water to cover it:

Boil it for about 20 minutes or so. This will sanitize everything as well as get rid of any oxygen in the water, so the yeasties will take a nice long nap. Then remove the jars and lids with the tongs, keeping them full of water.

Cover all the jars and let cool in the fridge for several hours, or maybe overnight.

Bernie Brewer · Oct 16, 2007

Rack your beer as usual........

Pour the water from the jars into the carboy

And give it a good swirl.

Let it sit for 20 minutes or so. This is what it will look like. Notice the stuff at the bottom starting to settle out.

Bernie Brewer · Oct 16, 2007

Then, trying not to disturb the stuff at the bottom, fill up the larger jar that you boiled. If some of the stuff from the bottom gets in, it's not the end of the world.

Let this jar settle for 20 minutes or so, too. You'll notice some more stuff settling to the bottom again.

Then, again being careful not to disturb the stuff on the bottom, fill up the small Mason jars. Fill them all the way up.

The four on the left are the ones I did today. the one on the right is one that I did last February. It's just there to show the final product.

All that's left to do is label the jars and put them in the fridge. Then when it's time to make a starter, you just pull one out, let it warm to room temp, and decant most of the liquid out of the jar, give the rest a good shake, and pitch it into your starter..

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Prez · Oct 16, 2007

Nice write-up. Should be a sticky.

rdwj · Oct 16, 2007

well done.....

c.n.budz · Oct 16, 2007

That's by far the best description of yeast washing that I've seen. The pics are especially helpful.

+1 on the sticky vote.

sause · Oct 16, 2007

I just put this info on the Wiki so we can link to it directly.

Wiki Yeast Washing

The wroding changed a little but I hope it's just as helpful.

Ryanh1801 · Oct 16, 2007

Good Write up, would be a good one to go in the Hall of Fame.

user 574 · Oct 16, 2007

Good one Bernie. I was going to say go wiki instead of sticky and sause did just that.

Sea · Oct 16, 2007

Nice Bernie, you should write a book!

You say that the one on the right in the final pic is from Feb. I seem to have heard conflicting opinions on how long you can let washed yeast sit before you use it. What's the oldest you've used?

olllllo · Oct 16, 2007

Wiki'd and stickied.

Dinbin · Oct 16, 2007

Excellant Thread! Its wonderful how simple something becomes when you add a visual.

Bernie Brewer · Oct 16, 2007

Sea said:
Nice Bernie, you should write a book!

You say that the one on the right in the final pic is from Feb. I seem to have heard conflicting opinions on how long you can let washed yeast sit before you use it. What's the oldest you've used?

Thanks all! The yeast that was washed in these posts was last washed in December of last year. I made my last two starters from that batch in mid-September, and another in early October. So that's about ten months for that generation. I've used year-old yeast before, but keep in mind that there's no guarantee that the yeast will always stay viable for so long. Also, the older it is, the longer it will take for the starter to take off. I think those starters took over 48 hours to show signs of life. I was about to give up, then I saw the bubbles

howlinowl · Oct 17, 2007

I see that you are washing the yeast from your carboy.... I'm assuming that you'd want to do this with the yeast from your secondary fermenter, right?? Or can you wash the yeast from your primary also?? Sometimes I skip the secondary depending on how lazy I am, and just keg from the primary. Is there any reasoning why you couldn't use the yeast from the primary?

Allan

Ryanh1801 · Oct 17, 2007

you want to use the yeast from the primary fermenter.

killian · Oct 17, 2007

I think Palmer recommended harvesting from secondary, because there is less trub in the secondary but I have used both with little difference. the yeast from the secondary will be faster to floculate

Sean from New Hampshire · Oct 17, 2007

I've been meaning to do this myself and post it here, thanks alot!!

Sean

Richard · Oct 17, 2007

Would it be ok to just swish the water around with the yeast in the bottom of the fermentor and then pour the next batch on top?

Bernie Brewer · Oct 17, 2007

This was from my secondary, but I've done it either way.

Richard, if you are going to repitch onto a yeast cake, don't add the water, just put the wort on top of the cake.

gyrfalcon · Oct 17, 2007

This is neat, but what's the point in doing this? You can pour the yeast cake out of the bottom of the carboy and refrigerate it if you want to use it again soon too. It seems like a lot of work considering it may not ferment in your next batch. It might even potentially wreck it.

chainsawbrewing · Oct 18, 2007

question to OP: after filling the larger vessel with the yeast from the secondary, you said

Then, again being careful not to disturb the stuff on the bottom, fill up the small Mason jars. Fill them all the way up.

i assume you mean fill the four empty pint jars with the yeast/liquid from the bigger mason jar, and not fill the four empty pint jars with the rest of the yeast/liquid in the carboy that didn't fit into the bigger mason jar.

i could see how that lack of clarification could possibly confuse people, especially when all the stuff in the secondary won't fit into the larger mason jar.

Bernie Brewer · Oct 18, 2007

brian williams said:
question to OP: after filling the larger vessel with the yeast from the secondary, you said

i assume you mean fill the four empty pint jars with the yeast/liquid from the bigger mason jar, and not fill the four empty pint jars with the rest of the yeast/liquid in the carboy that didn't fit into the bigger mason jar.

i could see how that lack of clarification could possibly confuse people, especially when all the stuff in the secondary won't fit into the larger mason jar.

You're right, that was a bit confusing, but you assumed correctly. Thanks for clearing that up. :mug:

kappclark · Oct 18, 2007

I especially like the idea of boiling everything together, and of de-oxygenating the water to let the yeasties sleep ...

Pictures esp helpful...I have the flask, now I will get the tongs and start washing after I rack this weekend ..

What *will* I do with all the $$ I save ??

How long can you store the yeast ? 1 month ?

killian · Oct 19, 2007

you can store until the yeast turns a peanut butter color, you can also freeze the yeast. generally people say a month or so but a lot of people store it a lot longer than that.

Richard · Oct 22, 2007

Bernie Brewer said:
Richard, if you are going to repitch onto a yeast cake, don't add the water, just put the wort on top of the cake.

Are there any problems that could arise, or is it really that simple?

chainsawbrewing · Oct 22, 2007

Richard said:
Are there any problems that could arise, or is it really that simple?

it's really that simple. i do it all the time.

Richard · Oct 22, 2007

brian williams said:
it's really that simple. i do it all the time.

Sweet!

Bobby_M · Oct 22, 2007

I'd NOT do any yeast reusing until you're quite certain of your sanitation process. If you must pitch on the cake, take a good whiff of it first and taste the beer that you just racked off. If it smells or tastes sour or bad in any way, don't risk the next batch too.

El_Borracho · Oct 23, 2007

How much $ are we saving with this? I assume it works better for those of you using liquid yeasts?

I still don't get it

Hah.. but I'm a noob.

chainsawbrewing · Oct 23, 2007

El_Borracho said:
How much $ are we saving with this? I assume it works better for those of you using liquid yeasts?

I still don't get it Hah.. but I'm a noob.

well, i make a beer constantly called "death by dunkel" and i continually wash/reuse my yeast, and have for the last 5 batches of it, and it's gotten my total cost down to $16.95 per 5 gallon batch. basically, you just save the cost of the yeast per batch, which for liquid yeast is around $8.00 i believe.

Yeast Washing Illustrated

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