I'm no expert on yeast washing as I just did it for the first time last week. But I didn't pour off the all of the top layer in the jar. I poured some off, then gently agitated the jar to re-suspend the yeast and carefully poured that off into a clean jar with more sterile water. I let that settle and ended up with just the white yeast and more clear yellow liquid. Decanted almost all of the liquid, and tossed it into a starter. Chilled and decanted it, re-stirred and pitched.