Keeping yeast from primary.

[jason29307]

Hi Guys,
I just recently brewed an all grain Belgium Golden Strong Ale and I used White Labs 570 Belgium Golden ale.
I kept it in the primary for about two weeks and then racked to secondary. So I figured I would play with the yeast. I swirled the yeast and the little beer left in the bottom of the primary and poured it into a sanitary mason jar and put it in the fridge.
There are three layers in the jar now. The top is the liquid, then about 1/2 inch of very light, almost white sand looking (Yeast?) on the second layer. Then there is a slightly darker sand looking layer about two inches to the bottom.
So all together, starting at the top is 1 inch of liquid, 1/2 inch of very light looking yeast, and then about 2 inches of darker looking yeast.
I am thinking the second layer is the good yeast and the bottom is trub and yeast. Is that correct?

What I am wanting to know is, next time I use a Belgium yeast, can I spoon out about a table spoon of yeast, make a starter and pitch that?

Or is there a way to just get the good yeast out of the jar and ditch the rest?

Or should I use the bottom yeast from the secondary?

Please let me know what you guys think.
Thanks all
Jason

 

[erikpete18]

You're correct on your call of your yeast in the layers. The nice white yeast is what you want to use. That being said, depending on how strong your golden ale was, the yeast might be a little stressed right now. I'd definitely plan on setting up a starter when you use them next to get them up and moving a little. I think most people just use the entire white layer and don't bother trying to just take a sample from it (probably assuming that they can just wash yeast from the new batch as well). If you just take a tablespoon, you'll definitely want to step your starter up a few times to make sure you've got enough yeast to work with.

 

[windbreaker123]

Answers to you question reside here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/ If your doing a batch as you empty the primary you can also use the yeast cake.