How to separate yeast from trub

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fayderek14

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This is the yeast I washed. I plan on using it in the next week or so. How do I go about separating the yeast from the trub and using it for a brew.
 
I don't know what size this container is so.. Decant what you have until there is about a quart of liquid above the trub layer. Your yeast is the creamy layer on top of the trub. Swirl all up to mix.
The trub will settle out first. When you see a 1/4 inch clear layer at the top of the jar, pour out the solution until you fill a quart jar. You will have harvested most of the yeast. Let it sit and remaining trub and the yeast will settle to the bottom.

If this is a quart jar, decant until there is about a pint of liquid left and continue.

Some people will say this is totally unnecessary. Just scoop some and use. I like to be able to more clearly estimate the amount of yeast I have. Less to worry about when planning starters.

Storing the yeast in the frig is a lot easier for my wife if it is in pint jars.
 
i'm one of the people saying it is totally unnecessary. this kind of yeast washing with boiled water only exists in the home brewing world, no commercial brewer would do this. if you wash that yeast you will certainly pour lots of viable yeast down the drain along with the trub which to me makes no sense at all. some yeast washing procedures call for pouring to and fro multiple times and unless you are doing this under a hood or a clean room how do you know what you are mixing into the yeast from the air? you don't. calculating how much yeast you have in the slurry can be done with one of the yeast calculators found online and they have good enough accuracy. if you wanted to get even nerdier about it you can follow these ez instructions and do it yourself.
 
That slurry looks pretty darn clean in the photo. If you're going to be using it soon, simply store in the fridge. When it's time to use it, decant most of that liquid off, swirl it around and pitch.

If you keep it for later, do a starter.
 
What about the trub though?

Unless it has a bunch of hop residue and such (which yours appears to not have), don't worry about it. The yeast is all mixed up in it. It's not going to hurt at all to simply decant that liquid off and pitch the slurry.
 
There's a blog post titled "yeast washing exposed" or something like that. I think the blogger is a active poster on this forum. He makes a compelling case that you don't need to wash. Just pitch the slurry.

His yeast counting experiments found about equal amounts of viable yeast in all three layers ( spent wort, "clean yeast", trub). And the least Amount of foreign bacteria in the bottom trub layer.

His recommendation was to decant the top layer and pitch the rest.

The dead yeast and break material in the trub acts as food for the new yeast. It's only an issue if you have excessive hops in the trub.



ETA
Here's a post from HBT that talks about the original blog posts:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-exposed-376860/
 

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