How do I harvest and wash yeast?

[cthulhughost]

I am bottling an abbey this weekend and I want to take some of the yeast to use for a trippel I'm planning on brewing in a couple weeks or so. How do I was the yeast and how much should I take and what else should I put in there?

 

[BlackGoat]

I'd start with the thread below, which is outstanding.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

 

[cthulhughost]

I'd start with the thread below, which is outstanding.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Thank you, that was perfect. Time to buy some canning jars.

 

[Tapout]

So, in the linked thread the author says "Then, again being careful not to disturb the stuff on the bottom, fill up the small Mason jars. Fill them all the way up."

Is he saying fill the mason jars from the larger jar or from the carboy? I'm assuming from the larger jar, but want to be sure for when I start to harvest my own yeast.

 

[BlackGoat]

You'd probably get a better answer posting in the original thread from where it came, the author will probably respond. However, the typical procedure is to take the yeast from the carboy and put it into a large jar w/water, let that settle out in the fridge, then pour the yeast from that into smaller jars for later use.

 

[iowabrew]

from the larger jar The larger jar is there to catch and leave behind the unwanted stuff from the fermentor. Think of the large jar as a 2ndary to filter out nearly all of the trub you don't want. Let it settle in the large jar for 30min or so then decant off the "hazy" liquid, that's your yeast.

 

[eastoak]

you could also sanitized or sterilize mason jars, pour the slurry right into the jars and store in the fridge, no washing involved. i know some people worry about trub or whatever but i've never had any issues with fermenting with straight slurry. sometimes i go down the street to Drake's brewing and the give me liters of yeast right from the bottom of their tanks and i pitch that right into my wort, no washing, i think they (and many other breweries) do the same thing from batch to batch.